Abstract
Inside the passenger cabin of modern cars, lower noise levels from quieter engines make road noise more dominant. The main transfer path for road noise below 300 Hz into the car is the suspension. Suspension layouts are mainly determined by driving dynamics, but their influence on road noise is not in focus. Layout design changes for driving dynamics in the early development phase require the modification of structural dynamics Finite Element (FE) models used to predict interior acoustics. This manual modification makes acoustical effects from layout design changes difficult to predict. In the following article, we present a method to adapt suspension FE models automatically to suspension layout changes. This allows an automatic optimization of the suspension layout regarding road noise. As an example, a rear axle suspension layout is modified to decrease road noise between 60 and 90 Hz by moving the connection point between the track rod and the knuckle.
Highlights
The growing number of silent electric vehicles and autonomous driving functions shift passenger focus more on the comfort of vehicles [1,2]
The driving dynamics are not in focus so the suspension layout can contribute to better comfort performance [1,8]
We presented a method to investigate effects from suspension kinematics changes to the suspension transfer function in the hearing frequency range
Summary
The growing number of silent electric vehicles and autonomous driving functions shift passenger focus more on the comfort of vehicles [1,2]. Suspension design consists of two separate processes. The overall layout is designed with respect to driving dynamics and package [6] The driving dynamics are not in focus so the suspension layout can contribute to better comfort performance [1,8]. This allows entirely new approaches for suspension concepts [8] The suspension layout is defined in an early stage of the product development process when there is no hardware available.
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