Road Simulation Bench as a Tool to Reproduce the Real Life Ageing of the Exhaust System A Case Study: The Flexible Ageing

Through a case history, we report a procedure to age exhaust flexibles on a Road Simulation Bench, in order to reproduce the acoustic failures occurred during vehicle ageing. The bench ageing has been the key instrument to solve an acoustic problem (a ring) observed on the vehicle after ageing. It is shown that it was mainly due to the partial loosening of the external outer braid (which caused the flapping of the outer braid against the bellows).