Virtual Test Platform of Automotive Aeroacoustic Performances for Earlier Development Phase

Broadband noise in an automotive vehicle induced by aeroacoustic behaviors, as known as wind noise, is concerned as one of the most important issues especially according to emergence of electric vehicles. The transfer paths from noise sources to passengers have complicated characteristics by superposition of nonlinear phenomena, which make noise reductions more difficult. Because of the complexity, the noise reduction could become more effective in the earlier development phase as possible, in which exterior designs could be easily changed. But in the exterior design phase, any physical test for wind noise is nearly impossible because the exterior shapes exist only in the virtual space. This study introduces the virtual test platform for wind noise as a one-and-only way to enable NVH engineers to handle aeroacoustics in the early design phase. The platform consists of three layers; kernel layer based on the lattice Boltzmann method, template layer made of well-defined best practices correlated with physical test results, and shell layer providing user-friendly graphic interfaces for the collaboration between engineers in different fields. The application of the virtual development could achieve the shape optimization in the both viewpoints of performances and aesthetics as well as save development resources.