A Method to Evaluate the Acoustic Performance of Lightweight Sound Packages for Automotive Interiors

In this paper, an analytic method has been developed to effectively evaluate the acoustic performance of a vehicle when a traditional sound package component is replaced by a lightweight sound package component. This method avoids the expensive full vehicle tests and statistical energy analysis (SEA) model simulations, and can be used to evaluate the results quickly with acceptable level of accuracy. The developed method is verified by comparing the results with those obtained from a chassis dynamometer test and a full vehicle SEA model simulation. Good correlation is observed between the test and the model. Some parametric studies regarding the performance of lightweight sound packages are also carried out using the method developed in this paper.