Supporting the virtual NVH process with virtual prototyping

NVH metrics are crucial design parameters to be met when developing a new mechanical system. Especially in the transportation industry good NVH parameters are felt as one of the principal "purchase motivators". Only in the automotive industry. approximately 80 metrics. either obtainable through an objective or a subjective approach, are currently established, to describe and evaluate the overall ride and comfort performance of an automobile. NVH engineering is currently performed based on physical testing. This approach is though very expensive and allows information about NVH behaviour to be obtained only when physical prototypes can be built, that is relatively late in the design process. Therefore eventual overall design modifications introduced to fulfil NVH requirements impact strongly on the development costs. Virtual prototyping of automotive vehicles has been established for 25 years as part of the design process for all handling problems. This paper examines the process to be followed using typical vehicle models, developed for handling simulations, to generate virtual measurements on typical NVH observation points for typical NVH events. and to use those data in a common NVH signal processing tool, in the same way an NVH engineer would analyse data coming from physical testing, to evaluate typical NVH metrics.