The prediction of low- and mid-frequency internal road vehicle noise: a literature survey

Over the past 40 years the low- and mid-frequency internal noise of road vehicles has been of increasing interest to both manufacturers and customers, and there have been many papers written on the subject. It is particularly important that manufacturers are able to predict the noise at an early stage of a new design so that expensive mistakes can be avoided. This paper reviews the relevant literature published over this 40 year period and concludes that the finite element method (FEM), and/or the boundary element method (BEM) are currently the most accurate ways of predicting this noise. However, although the emphasis of this review is on the low- and mid-frequency structure-borne aspect of the noise, other prediction methods (which are normally considered to be only applicable at high frequencies) are also considered. In particular, the statistical energy analysis (SEA) is shown to be an increasingly useful tool for predicting structure-borne noise, as is the newly developed FEM/SEA hybrid method. Other essentially high-frequency techniques are also considered in this review because recent research indicates that it might be possible to apply these methods over a broader frequency range than was initially envisaged.