Feasibility of Using Acoustic Room Models and Measured Sound Power to Estimate Vehicle Interior Noise

In this paper, interior noise of a heavy commercial truck was modeled with the room equation. This approach assumed that large truck cabins may be adequately modeled as a practical room as is done in architectural acoustics, where ray theory and statistical concepts are suitable, and where application of complicated wave theory may not be necessary. This simplifies computational requirements, making a semi-empirical scheme useful for timely product development. This study employed sound power measurements at thirty-four surface patches encompassing the interior cabin boundary. Each surface-patch constituted an individual interior noise source. Predicted and measured results correlated well, demonstrating the capability to estimate driver-position noise level from predicted periphery sound intensity changes.