Evaluation of Cavity Fillers to Improve Vehicle NVH Comfort Quality

A new test methodology has been developed to quantify the performance of vehicle cavity fillers. This test methodology focuses on the vehicle Body in White (BIW) and provides a proper test environment for individual cavity fillers. Since the focus of the methodology is BIW, the proper boundary condition is automatically implemented and the results obtained from this test methodology can be utilized for an actual comparison of noise reduction (NR) performance for different cavity fillers. In this study a noise source generator was placed at different locations within the vehicle body to generate the desired noise level. The goal was to realistically simulate wind, tire and the powertrain noise sources at the vehicle level and evaluate the performance of the cavity fillers. By placing several microphones in the vicinity of the A, B, C and D pillars, the noise reduction performances of the individual cavity fillers were obtained. This test methodology was implemented and validated for a typical sport utility BIW. Noise reductions of all pillars were evaluated with and without the cavity fillers. The results obtained from the NR data provide the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) performance of the cavity fillers and also show the effectiveness of this test methodology. Finally, this methodology can be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of cavity fillers applied to specific locations.