Sound Quality Prediction Modelling for the Transient Sound of Vehicle Door Latch Closure

Door latch closure noise has contribution on sound quality of vehicle door slam sound. This paper focuses on the modelling of sound quality for door latch closure sound. 24 various latch closure sound samples were recorded to be evaluated subjectively. A novel Dynamic Paired Comparison Method (DPCM) was introduced for subjective evaluation. By eliminating the redundant comparison pairs the DPCM dramatically reduced the evaluation work load comparing to the traditional Paired Comparison Method (PCM). Correlation between subjective evaluation results and psychoacoustic metrics was analyzed to find out the most relevant metrics as inputs for the subsequent prediction model. Besides, the shudder effect induced by multi-impact of latch components during closing movement was also found strongly affecting the subjective perception of door latch closure sound. Therefore, a new metric Shudder Level which is graded in 3 levels describing this shudder effect was developed and then quantified as one of the model inputs. The sound quality of door latch closure was modeled by means of Multi-Linear Regression Function (MLRF) both with and without the Shudder Level. The results show that the model which takes the shudder effect into account gives a better prediction on door latch closure sound quality.