Acoustic Patch Panels Addressing Structure Borne Issues in Vehicles

The impetus of using laminated steel in acoustics application and in the automotive industry has been to improve the structure borne noise damping properties. This is very critical for body panels with deep draws, such as dash panels. In the earlier days of laminated steel history, the entire part or component was made out of laminated steel and this became a part of the vehicle body panel. This improved structure borne and airborne acoustic properties but added a lot of extra mass to the part. This paper discusses the effectiveness of acoustic patch based laminated steel application that improves the structure borne noise damping properties and therefore improves the acoustic performance at frequencies where structure borne noise is critical. The use of acoustic patch panels also addresses the lightweighting demands of vehicles as these do not require the entire panel to be made out of laminated steel.