How an Acoustic Lab can help bring vehicles to market quicker

How an Acoustic Lab can help bring vehicles to market quicker

Vehicles ranging from industrial machinery and construction equipment to buses and fork trucks, all require different noise control solutions depending on their operating environments and end users. Identifying noise sources within these vehicles can be challenging and consideration needs to be given to both internal and external noise sources, as well as structural and air borne noise.

External Noise

The noise radiating from a vehicle into the surrounding environment can affect people and noise sensitive locations. It can be expressed as a sound power level which calculates the sound energy emitted independent of its environment.

Internal Noise

The noise levels in the passenger compartment of the vehicle including the driver’s position. For commercial vehicles, the level at the drivers location in particular is subject to the health and safety regulations for noise in the workplace.

Airborne noise

This noise path is the direct transmission of sound energy through air. The resistance of a vehicle’s partition to this energy is dependent on its physical properties and the frequency characteristic of the noise (low, medium, high).

Structureborne noise

This is a noise pathway for noise where the energy from a source transmits as vibration along a rigid structure. This energy can cause a panel to radiate the energy as noise. If the dimensions of the panel coincide with the wavelength of the sound energy the resulting resonance can exacerbate the issue.

Acoustic Laboratory

Acoustic laboratories are a vital resource for the development of material composites and product solutions for the vehicle noise control sector. Ventac’s acoustic laboratories are used in identifying noise issues within vehicles at their source in order to effectively and quickly design and manufacture an acoustic solution.

The acoustic laboratory includes a suite of reverberation chambers, where these materials and products can be tested for sound absorption, airborne sound transmission loss, sound reduction index and insertion loss. The sound power level of noise sources can also be tested. Noise source identification techniques include sound intensity, nearfield holography and beamforming and can be used in understanding the complex noise sources within vehicles.

Our labs are also used to test different materials to identify how they absorb noise and energy, while also considering the manufacturers demands including low-weight, thermal and fluid resistance.

Noise kit prototyping and the development of noise reduction solutions to support different design options is supported by our adjacent manufacturing facilities. An important concern for passenger vehicle manufacturers is often designing a prototype of a material that will reduce noise, while at the same time not weighting down the vehicle or driving up fuel consumption. The Acoustic Lab can support in this product development.

Acoustic Camera

Acoustic camera technology can also be beneficial when bringing a new vehicle to the market. An acoustic camera is made up of an array of microphones and a camera that can visualise and identify the characteristics of noise sources. Through the use of the acoustic camera, you can visually show customers the noise source and its path through their vehicle.

The mapping technology of the acoustic camera can be used to identify weak points and sound hotspots within a vehicle, while also providing an insight into the behaviour of the sound. This is done by using the phase data (wave motion) to animate the maps to show how the sound propagates from a structure.

Through the use of an acoustic camera, the exact noise source can be identified, allowing vehicle manufacturers to apply the most effective acoustic solution.

Ventac has an on-site Innovation and Acoustic Laboratory and has Ireland’s only commercial acoustic test chambers. Talk to us today to discuss how we can help bring your vehicle to the market quicker.