Relevance of Inverse Method to Characterize Structure Borne Noise Sources: Application on an Industrial Case and Comparison with a Direct Method

The current paper is based on the French research program TESSA (“Transfert des Efforts des Sources Solidiennes Actives”). A specific task within TESSA project consists in the characterization of the measurements variability between several laboratories, of the blocked forces on a water pump of a heat engine. This paper focuses only on the measurements carried out at Vibratec laboratory. Two kinds of measurements have been carried out: direct measurements, using force sensors, which is the target of the inter-laboratory measurements, and an inverse method without force sensor requirements. Reproducibility and repeatability tests have been done in order to quantify the measurement variability within the same laboratory, in preparation for the inter-laboratory disparity analysis. Specific supports have been designed for each method: a rigid aluminum block for the direct method and a support dedicated to the inverse method, including a high modal density and modal damping in the frequency range of interest. The comparison of both methods shows that the inverse method is satisfying for the measurement of blocked forces on a “non-rigid” support and that it is possible to apply such methodology “in-situ”, with the source in its real environment.