Vibration Design of Experiments with Varying Factors on a Panel-Beam System

Both vehicle roof systems and vehicle door systems typically have viscoelastic material between the beams and the outer panel. These materials have the propensity to affect the vibration decay time and the vibration level of the panel with their damping and stiffening properties. Decay time relates to how pleasant a vehicle door sounds upon closing, and vibration level relates to how loud a roof boom noise may be perceived to be by vehicle occupants. If a surrogate panel could be used to evaluate decay time and vibration level, then a design of experiments (DOE) could be used to compare the effects of different factors on the system.

The purpose of this paper is to show the effect of varying test factors on decay time and vibration level on a panel-beam system with viscoelastic material applied. The results were calculated using DOE software, and they were used to construct optimized systems for validation testing. The test regimen used a modal hammer to excite the system and a piezoelectric accelerometer to measure the response. The input force measured with the modal hammer was used to normalize the structural responses. The conclusions of this work are presented and examined.