Psycho-acoustic evaluation of the automotive acoustic comfort using vibro-acoustic prediction methods

In the automotive industry, the acoustic comfort is considered as a selling point of utmost importance. To help the OEMs improve the acoustic comfort in cars, as a one-tier supplier of automotive glazing, Saint-Gobain is currently working on the acoustic comfort within the cabin in order to propose the right set of glazing consistent with the OEMs' specifications. The characterization of the acoustic comfort mostly relies on physical demonstrators required for carrying out the relevant measurements. It is however not available early in the project phase, delaying the subjective analysis late in the development phase. To have the opportunity to develop effective solutions, the acoustic comfort has to be investigated as early as possible in the design process. Saint-Gobain is thus currently developing relevant acoustic models in order to predict the mid-high frequency airborne interior noise generated by the wind excitations. The subjective acoustic comfort has then to be assessed using the predicted interior sound pressure levels converted into audio soundtracks for the auralization purposes. In this paper, we briefly present the Statistical Energy Analysis model developed by Saint-Gobain. The psychoacoustic methodology deployed to evaluate its reliability for the subjective evaluation of the automotive acoustic comfort is detailed.