Automotive Industry is moving towards lightweight vehicle design with more powerful engines. This is increasing a demand for more optimized NVH design. Source-Path-Contributor (SPC) analysis is one of the ways to draw a holistic picture of any NVH problem.
In this paper, an NVH problem of low frequency booming noise and steering vibration has been studied in a development vehicle. All three dimensions of SPC paradigm were looked at to propose a feasible and optimized solution at each level of Source, Path and Contributor model.
A classical transfer path analysis (TPA) has been done to identify the highest contributing path: transmission mount and suspension arm. Optimization of suspension bush parameter has been carried out using dynamic elastomer testing facility for an improved NVH performance.
After identifying source as engine a study of torsional fluctuations due to gas pressure and torsional resonances has been carried out in order to achieve a feasible solution at source.
Finally, for contributor, operation deflection shapes have been studied to identify major panels responsible for the amplification of in-cabin noise. Optimized designs of dynamic dampers have been created using CAE tools and dynamic elastomer testing machine to propose an effective and efficient solution.
This kind of approach was helpful to identify root cause at source, path and contributor levels, thereby helping to achieve an optimized NVH solution in terms of cost, weight and development feasibility.