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Over the past decades, interior noise from wind noise or engine noise have been significantly reduced by leveraging improvements of both the overall vehicle design and of sound package. Consequently, noise sources originating from HVAC systems (Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning), fans or exhaust systems are becoming more relevant for perceived quality and passenger comfort. This study focuses on HVAC systems and discusses a Flow-Induced Noise Detection Contributions (FIND Contributions) numerical method enabling the identification of the flow-induced noise sources inside and around HVAC systems. This methodology is based on the post-processing of unsteady flow results obtained using Lattice Boltzmann based Method (LBM) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations combined with LBM-simulated Acoustic Transfer Functions (ATF) between the position of the sources inside the system and the passenger’s ears.

Wind noise is a significant source of interior noise in automobiles at cruising conditions, potentially creating dissatisfaction with vehicle quality. While wind noise contributions at higher frequencies usually originate with transmission through greenhouse panels and sealing, the contribution coming from the underbody area often dominates the interior noise spectrum at lower frequencies. Continued pressure to reduce fuel consumption in new designs is causing more emphasis on aerodynamic performance, to reduce drag by careful management of underbody airflow at cruise. Simulation of this airflow by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools allows early optimization of underbody shapes before expensive hardware prototypes are feasible. By combining unsteady CFD-predicted loads on the underbody panels with a structural acoustic model of the vehicle, underbody wind noise transmission could be considered in the early design phases.

With the rise of electric autonomous vehicles, it has become clear that the cabin of tomorrow will drastically evolve to both improve ride experience and reduce energy consumption. In addition, autonomy will change the transportation paradigm, leading to a reinvention of the cabin seating layout which will offer the opportunity to climate systems team to design quiet and even more energy efficient systems. Consequently, Heat and Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems designers have to deliver products which perform acoustically better than before, but often with less development time. To success under such constraints, designers need access to methods providing both assessment of the system (or subsystems) acoustic performance, and identification of where the designs need to be improved to reduce noise levels. Such methods are often needed before a physical prototype is requested, and thus can only be achieved in a timely manner through digital testing.