Automotive Door Closure Sound Quality: Model, Target Definition and Identification of Countermeasure for Performance Improvement

When developing new vehicles, OEMs are particularly attentive to the door closure sound quality as this can affect the perceived quality of the vehicle by prospective buyer when they see the vehicle at the dealership. In this paper, we present the work we performed jointly with a vehicle OEM to create a sound quality model for door closure sound that can be used to evaluate the performance of a vehicle. The model can also be used to set targets matching the customer expectations. We then describe the detailed investigations we performed on an existing vehicle to identify the key design parameters affecting the door closure sound quality. We demonstrate after that how we were able to significantly improve the door closure sound quality by implementing specific prototype design changes in the vehicle.