Rapid Design and Development of Noise Radiating Engine Components

This paper describes the rapid design and development of thin walled powertrain components which act as external cover for engine subsystem assemblies. Computer Aided Engineering plays a major role in reducing the overall product development lead time. An approach by using ‘Simulation Driven Design and Development’ helps the developers to bring the necessary confidence about the components' required functionality during the design stage itself. During the design stage, typical inputs available for the development of these components are the broad dimensions obtained from the packaging considerations. The designer is required to develop the concepts targeting least noise radiation from component surfaces due to various excitations. Based on cost considerations, the designer can even opt for plastic materials instead of steel. The current paper considers two major noise radiation members namely valve cover and timing gear cover for rapid product development. A conventional modal analysis followed by harmonic response studies provides the basis for the iterations towards designing these members. The modal analysis, harmonic response studies and noise radiation efficiency calculations are performed by using a commercial FEA program. It is observed that the suggested Simulation Driven Design and Development approach has reduced the development time from 2 months to 3 weeks for the design finalization.