Prediction of Sound Transmission through Door Seals Using the Hybrid FE-SEA Method

During the last decades, the application of noise control treatments in vehicles has targeted the main noise transmission paths to interior noise. These paths include vehicle body panels such as dash panel, doors and floor. Many improvements have been achieved on these areas, and, as a consequence, other transmission paths once thought as secondary became relevant. This is the case of the sound transmission through door seals and others sealing elements at mid and high frequencies. In this paper, the interest lies on the prediction of the transmission loss of door seals. A full nonlinear deformation/contact analysis is used to estimate the deformed geometry of a door seal in real conditions. The geometry is then used in a vibro-acoustic analysis to predict the in-situ transmission loss of the seal using a local Hybrid FE-SEA model. The channel between the door and the car structure where the seal is located is also included in the analysis. Results for the transmission loss are compared with experimental data, showing a good correlation. It is also shown that the channel is an important element of the analysis and must be taken into account.