Improved vehicle interior structure-borne noise induced by the powertrain using parallel dry friction damper

Abstract

Because of the higher requirements for vehicle comfort and people’s increasing ecological consciousness, research on the interior noise in a vehicle has received wide attention, among which structure-borne noise is hard to diagnose. To solve the problem, the transfer path analysis method of powertrain structure-borne noise has been systematically analyzed. By introduction of the powertrain source-path-receiver model, this method enables the researchers to estimate and study the noise, vibration, and harshness transfer functions and their operational forces. The aim is to further improve noise, vibration, and harshness with minimal negative impact on other vehicle attributes, such as ride comfort, handling, drivability, durability, etc. In this article, a parallel dry friction damper was added to the vehicle nearside powertrain mount, which is the most significant one to the receiver of passenger vehicle for improving its interior structure-borne noise induced by the engine. The test vehicle was a midsize executive vehicle. Since the structure-borne noise is composed of multiple paths, then the transfer path analysis test of the vehicle was carried out, and the transfer function and operational data at speed range started from 20 to 100 km/h were obtained. On the basis of the transfer path analysis results and the above principle, the friction damper on the body side of the nearside mount is improved by combination of the experimental transfer path analysis and the final measurements. The results indicate that a significant reduction for the A-weighted sound pressure level of the interior noise has been gained when the frictional damper was added to conventional mount.