Spatial Noise Acquisition at the Driver's Position in an Electric Vehicle with Increased Accuracy

In vehicles with electrified powertrains, high-frequency tonal noise components have become increasingly prominent and can be perceived as particularly annoying by the driver. While recent advancements in international standardization—such as ECMA-74 and ECMA-418—have led to powerful new algorithms for tonal noise visualization and analysis, like our Tonality-Heatmaps, the measurement side still lacks sensor setups that adequately reflect the spatial sensitivity of noise, especially for tonal components. This challenge is amplified in enclosed vehicle cabins, where room modes create local minima and maxima that become increasingly dense at higher frequencies. As a result, even small head movements can lead to noticeable differences in perceived tonal noise. Current measurement approaches do not sufficiently account for this spatial variability. This contribution addresses the absence of tailored solutions for the driver’s position by introducing an improved microphone arrangement that significantly reduces the uncertainty of measured noise levels. The proposed setup considers spatial variability without compromising comfort or crash safety requirements. By enhancing the precision of tonal noise quantification, this approach provides NVH engineers with a valuable complement to modern software-based tonal analysis methods. The paper discusses the technical implementation constraints and demonstrates the comparability of the new measurement technique with conventional setups.