www.SandV.com   SOUND AND VIBRATION/OCTOBER 2007 A New Approach for Developing Vehicle

Today, vehicle interior noise is an important customer satisfac-tion criterion. Acoustical engineers need to identify and eliminate disturbing noise components to maintain a competitive advantage. In fact, vehicle sound must be deliberately designed. This means that, to create driving satisfaction, certain noise aspects have to be emphasized and others reduced. Vehicle engineering needs to be extended to design-engineering and the exploration of preferred sounds. Furthermore, simulation of new engine sounds or even the sound of the entire vehicle at early stages in the development phase has become increasingly important. For example, different engine mounts can be virtually built in and their effects on interior sound can be examined without expensive iteration loops using physical prototypes. This article presents new tools for sound design and target sound development. In particluar, we introduce a new subject-centered method – Explorative Vehicle Evaluatio