Full Vehicle NVH CAE Methodology Development to Address Tailgate Rattling on a Future Tata SUV

In recent years, car manufacturers have been working intensively on new ways to improve the quality of interior trims. Elimination of squeak and rattle has become one of the main concerns for car manufacturers lately, given the significance of these incidences in customers' perception of overall quality. Traditionally, rattle problems are found and fixed with physical tests at the late design stage, mainly due to lack of up-front CAE simulation prediction methodology and tools availability. This article presents a finite element based methodology for the improvement of rattle performance of a vehicle tailgate. In this study, appropriate finite element (FE) modeling technique was introduced to accurately predict occurrence of tailgate rattle. Simulation process using commercial software “Nastran” employing modal and forced frequency response analyses was illustrated. Design modifications were incorporated for performance improvement of rattling on present and future SUVs. The simulation methodology and results were validated with experiments on an existing SUV model, with BSR inputs at left rear tire and acceleration responses measured on body and tailgate. Usefulness of this study to predict tailgate rattling in future SUVs was underlined with an example.