Sound quality of vehicles has become very important for car
manufacturers. This feature is interpreted as among the most
relevant factors regarding perceived product quality. Since the
development cycles in the automotive industry are constantly
reduced to meet the customers' demands and to react quickly to
market needs, ensuring product sound quality is becoming
increasingly difficult. Moreover, new drive and fuel concepts,
tightened ecological specifications, increase of vehicle classes
and increasing diversification, etc., challenge the acoustic
engineers trying to create and preserve a pleasant, adequate,
harmonious passenger cabin sound. Another aspect concerns the
general pressure for reducing emission and fuel consumption, which
lead to vehicle weight reductions through material changes also
resulting in new noise and vibration conflicts.
Furthermore, in the context of alternative powertrains and
engine concepts, the new objective is to detect and implement the
vehicle sound tailored to suit the auditory expectations and needs
of the target group. But, what are appropriate sounds for hybrid or
electric vehicles? To answer this question and to allow coping with
the growing expectations regarding the acoustical comfort, advanced
methods and tools are necessary. To guarantee high quality
standards, it is imperative to have detailed and reliable
information about NVH issues in early design phases. This requires
the use of sophisticated simulation techniques, which offer the
virtual construction and testing of subsystems and/or the whole car
in early development stages. The virtual testing is very important
especially with respect to alternative drive concepts (hybrid cars,
electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell cars), where new NVH problems and
challenges occur which have to be adequately managed right from the
beginning. The paper highlights modern and innovative NVH
measurement technologies and presents solutions of recent NVH tasks
and challenges. Furthermore, future prospects and developments in
the field of automotive acoustics are considered and discussed.