A Case Study Comparing Active vs. Passive Enablers for Vehicle Interior Noise Reduction

The implementation of enablers on a luxury sport utility vehicle is used to illustrate the development process for reduction of road noise. The vehicle in this case study was launched into production with two tuned mass dampers for reduction of low frequency road noise content which was amplified by frame modes. Additionally, resonators were integrated into the wheels (rims) to address the dominant cavity resonance frequencies. The results of this successful production implementation are illustrated herein.

An RNC (road noise cancellation) system was integrated into the case vehicle to assess its performance relative to the passive enablers listed above. This production representative (embedded software solution) RNC system utilized the vehicle’s existing audio system for creation of active noise to cancel noise content which was predicted using accelerometers mounted to the vehicle chassis.

A comparison of in-vehicle noise indicated a significant reduction at low frequencies (at all seating locations) when utilizing the active noise control solution. These noise improvements are coupled with a vehicle mass reduction of greater than 4 kg, when compared to the passive enabler solution.