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AN INTRODUCTION TO AUTOMOTIVE NVH TESTING

Article  in  Experimental Techniques · July 1998

DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-1567.1998.tb02336.x

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Mark French
Purdue University
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b-y M. French and M. Jay

AN INTRODUCTION TO

: ers (suppliers selling directly to the manufacturers are

T
his article is the first in a series of four describing
dynamic structural and acoustic testing in the
automotive industry. The automotive industry is
one in which vibration and acoustic testing is per-
formed on a large scale during product development. In
contrast to the aerospace industry, where a ground vibra-
tion test is a major event involving one or two airframes,
automotive dvnamic testing: occupies dozens of test labs on
Y
: called tier 1suppliers, while companies selling to the tier 1
suppliers are tier 2 suppliers and so on).
:
: The size of the industry has a significant effect on how it
: operates. About 15 million vehicles were sold in the US in
: 1997. That’s about 288,000 vehicles sold per week. With
: a n average price of approximatelv $20.000. that’s about
“ 1

a full time basis. Dynam- $300 billion in domestic

ics, modal analysis, acous- sales last year. Large
~

tic testing and the like are manufacturers have an-

usually lumped under the nual revenues of more
broad category of Noise, Vi- Wind than $100 billion and
Engine
bration and Harshness, or there are many tier 1
just NVH. The field of suppliers with annual
sound quality has devel- sales of over $1 billion.
Exhaust
oped to describe human
perceptions of noise and The roles of the differ-
the field of structural vi- Drivetrain e n t companies have
brations is ubiquitous. As changed greatly in the
far as we know, nobody has last ten years or so. The
a good mathematical de- Road typical automobile
scription of harshness. It manufacturer now
is, however, a permanent looks much more like an
part of the common ver- assembler. It is com-
nacular. mon for manufacturers
Qure I -Typical noise sources
to retain control over
In this first article, we will try to describe the larger envi- styling and to manufacture the body and the powertrain,
ronment of automotive NVH testing, why it is of such im- while outsourcing many of the remaining components. The
portance now and how the industry is balancing the re- sophistication of purchased components is increasing and
quirements for improved NVH performance and for de- will eventually include things like complete modular inte-
creased testing costs. The second article describes some of riors. In an effort to reduce their own fixed costs, manu-
the details of NVH testing including the types of tests and facturers are increasingly assigning engineering responsi-
the facilities built around them. The third article focuses bility to their tier 1 suppliers. Thus, tier 1 companies are
on instrumentation and data processing requirements. Fi- quickly building engineering capabilities including test fa-
nally, the fourth article describes the lab operations and cilities. We work in a test lab for a tier 1supplier of interi-
the business environment. ors and, as of this writing, are involved in a major lab con-
struction project.
STATE OFTHE INDUSTRY ‘

Perhaps the primary feature of the automotive business
structure is the relationship between the auto manufac-
turers and their When Henry Ford the
River Rouge plant, he made a self-contained factory in
which raw materials went into one end of the plant and
completed cars came out the other. At the time, Ford needed
to control the whole manufacturing process in order to con-
trol the quality of his cars. The situation today, however,
is nearly the opposite. The US manufacturers assemble
cars using many-components purchased from their suppli-
M. French (SEMMember) is Manager of Testing and Techliology
Development - Vibration and Acoustics, and M. Jay is Senior En-
gineer at Lear Corporation, Southfield, MZ.
Editor’s Note: An Introduction to Automotive NVH Testing is ..
the first in a series of Feature articlesprepared by Mark French, :
Chair of s E M s ModalAnalysis/Dynamic Systems Technical Di.
vision. Please contact SEM ifyou have any questioiu or comments
regarding this, or any other, ETarticle. PB
32 EXPERIMENTALTECHNIQUES JulylAugust 1998
Cost and quality concerns dominate every aspect of the
:. from offshoreindustry.
automotive Continuing quality improvements
manufacturers, combined with excess global
manufacturing capacity, and now, devalued Asian curren-
: cies create a very demanding
tic improvements in the noisebusiness environment.
and vibration Dras-
characteristic
: of almost all vehicles Over the past decade have added
: greatly to the customers’ perception of quality and have
: made NVH testing a hot field.
:
:. The automotive industry is the archetypal mature indus-
: try, being built around high sales volumes and low profit
: margins. Profit margins of a few percent are common
: among successful companies. In addition, there is great
pressure to maintain or reduce prices a t all levels of the
: industry. Thus NVH testingmust be inexpensive, fast and
: cost-effective. Fixing a problem while adding $0.50 to the
cost of a high volume component is not acceptable. Fixing
the same problem decreasing the $Oa50is
for great celebration. The fix must be Simple to mmufac-
ture, SO the design, test and manufacturing engineers must
. cooperate.
STANDARDSAND PROCEDURES
Some facets of the automotive NVH environment may be
unfamiliar to engineers working in other industries or a
university environment. One of the most significant is the
extent to which both the tests and reporting is subject to
formal, written procedures. Many, perhaps most compa-
nies in the industry, are subject to IS09000 or QS9000 re-
quirements. The idea is that no process can be improved
without first being made absolutely consistent. Along this
line of thinking, most test facilities have explicit procedures
for all the tests they perform. In addition, IS0 9000 re-
quires a standard reporting format for all tests and formal
control of sensor calibration traceable to NIST standards.
While this might sound unnecessarily bureaucratic, we find
the benefits well worth the initial overhead. By writing
and maintaining procedures, process improvements are
easy to document and the resulting gains are then cap-
tured almost automatically. It also makes cross training
much easier. Few organizations can afford not to make the
most of their employees’ time and skills, and formal test
procedures reduce the time required for an inexperienced
person to be productive. They also save organizations from
the chaos that results from having knowledge kept only in
the personal experience of a few senior employees. The
goal is never to hear anything like, (‘GO
ask Joe how to run
this test. He’s our modal guy”.
Finally, many organizations are contractually required to
test according to formal procedures. For instance, a sup-
plier who fails to test properly will, at the very least, be
required to repeat the test properly and for free. If the
problem recurs, manufacturers are reluctant to award fu-
ture business. The automotive industry in the late 1990’s
is extremely competitive, with extreme pressure to improve
products while decreasing costs. Poor performance from a
testing organization will never be tolerated for long.
PROBLEMS UNIQUETO AUTOMOTIVETESTING
Automotive NVH testing, while extremely complex in prac-
tice, is conceptually pretty simple. Excitation from either
the engine, power-train, the road surface or the air pass-
ing over the vehicle excites the structure and makes noise.
Not all noises and vibrations are undesirable as they often
provide useful information, In the past the goal was often
to minimize noise and vibration. Now, though, the NVH
characteristics of a vehicle are often used as a way to rein-
force the image of the vehicle. Of course, many noise sources
interact with each other. So, attenuating andlor shaping
one noise source may make another (and previously
masked) one more objectionable than before. A sports car
enthusiast may actually expect certain characteristic noises
and vibrations that the luxury car buyer would find objec-
tionable. Thus, sound and vibration engineering must ad-
dress the various noise and vibration sources and be tai-
lored to the product to convey the proper image to poten-
tial customers.
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NVH testing can be divided up into a couple of broad areas:
Power-trains, Exhaust, Accessory Components, Suspen-
sions, Bodies in White and Interiors. Power-trains include
the engine, transmission and drive shafts. Exhausts in-
clude manifolds, catalysts, and silencers. Accessory Com-
ponents include air conditioning compressors, alternator,
and cooling fans. A body in white is the load carrying struc-
ture of the vehicle as it exists before anything is attached
to it. A typical body in white is made of welded sheet metal
stampings. Interiors (our field) includes everything inside
the sheet metal (See Fig. 1).
Perhaps the most fundamental problem in automotive NVH
testing is that the industry regularly builds products it can’t
analyze. The limitations may be either technical (nobody
knows how) or economic (we know how, but it is too expen-
sive). The result is that testing is currently an inseparable
part of the product development process.
For instance, we spend a lot of time performing modal tests
on car seats even though they violate many of the assump-
tions inherent in the underlying mathematics. They have
non-linear stiffness curves with both freeplay and hyster-
esis, friction and multiple contacts. The analysis tools that
work fairly well for static problems on seat structures are
of limited use for dynamic problems, so we spend time test-
ing and modifying during the development process.
Another source of difficulty in testing is that many of the
criteria for acceptance or rejection of a product are subjec-
tive, based on the customer’s perceptions. Many of the for-
mal criteria for acceptance of a new product have subjec-
tive components. In addition to object specifications like
minimum natural frequency, maximum sound level, etc.,
there is usually something like “no objectionable noises or
vibrations.” Thus, there is often some testing involving
juries of representative customers or of the product engi-
neers. Fortunately, new tools such as juror-based sound
quality analysis and ride comfort metrics are being devel-
oped to help quantify people’s reactions.
THE ROLE OF TESTING
IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
NVH testing is an integral part of automotive product de-
velopment. Although manufacturers are working hard to
reduce the need for expensive and time-consuming proto-
types, it is unlikely that analysis tools or design practices
will eliminate the need for testing soon. One result is pres-
sure to improve understanding between the design, test
and manufacturing organizations within a company. The
days of “throwing a design over the wall” to the test or
manufacturing people are long gone.
The business environment demands that any test performed
must be accurate, repeatable and result in practical sug-
gestions for designers. This, in turn, demands well-trained
personnel, good communication between organizations and
continually improving test practices. Companies that can-
not do these things will not survive long..
July/August 1998 EXPERIMENTALTECHNIQUES 33