Objective Rating of Rumble in Vehicle Passenger Compartment During Acceleration

The intermittent turbid noise, often generated in a vehicle passenger compartment during acceleration, makes passengers feel unpleasant. This type of noise is called a “rumble noise”. We developed a quantitative method of evaluating the rumble noise, which agreed with the hearing sense of human beings.

In the first part of our study, the rumble evaluation process of human beings was modeled on the basis of hearing characteristics. Next, the rumble noises in the vehicle passenger compartments were analyzed in conformity with the model. The analysis showed that there were many types of amplitude modulation, each of which has a unique sense of unpleasantness. Subjective evaluation tests were then carried out to find quantitative relationships between many types of amplitude modulation and a sense of rumble. Finally, we developed a quantitative objective rating method for the rumble noise on the basis of the above findings. Comparison of objective rating with the human hearing sense showed a very good correlation between them.