The automotive industry faces increasing pressure as electrification introduces new components and accelerated development cycles shorten time-to-market, leaving limited opportunity to resolve Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) issues. This environment demands virtual development tools that are fast, precise, and efficient, and that can be seamlessly interchanged between development sites, suppliers, and OEMs; capabilities that are critical for effective target setting.
Component-based Transfer Path Analysis (C-TPA), standardized in ISO 20270:2019, enables independent component characterization and integration with virtual models to predict sound and vibration in new assemblies, referred to as Virtual Prototype Assemblies (VPA). However, conventional measurements are labor-intensive and therefore typically restricted to a small number of samples, overlooking production variability.
This paper introduces a system for fully automated, ISO 20270 compliant C-TPA on non-rigid test benches. The system features a fully instrumented test fixture equipped with multiple vibration shakers and sensors, which are automatically activated and linked to a data acquisition system for immediate processing. Components can be characterized within minutes, with the resulting blocked forces directly applied in a VPA workflow, replacing time-consuming in-vehicle testing and subjective evaluations with a laboratory-based automated bench process. Automation delivers high-quality data in a fraction of the time, eliminates reliance on operator expertise, and enables engineers to focus on analysis rather than spending days acquiring measurements.
A case study on an automotive steering system demonstrates the method’s accuracy, repeatability, and efficiency, along with its ability to predict realistic interior noise and capture production spread, supporting robust virtual NVH evaluation early in the development cycle.