As digital acoustics engineers and product designers, particularly those who determine because the Pc Aided Engineering (CAE) sort, we like numbers. Quantifiable and goal information provides us a basis to construct nice merchandise that meet our clients’ expectations. Sadly, that is solely a part of the story for Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) engineers. Model recognition and buyer acceptance rely not solely on Switch Path Evaluation (TPA) forces, panel and path contributions, order minimize information, and waterfalls however how these portions translate into the private notion of the sound your product makes.
Take into consideration the sound of the espresso maker with that first cup of espresso within the morning, and the way the feeling of high quality provides you confidence that it’ll make it precisely the way you prefer it. Or when your automotive door shuts with a strong “thud,” giving the sense of safety and security, versus a metallic “bang” you’ll anticipate from a automotive made within the 70s. And even the bell within the bus or tram, how a lifetime of listening to the identical sound provides you confidence that the motive force will hear it and the bus will cease.
How do you make a simulation mannequin “sound higher”?
At some point on the espresso nook…
For a lot of NVH CAE engineers, the next state of affairs could sound acquainted. The simulations are operating, and for Dave, it’s time for a well-earned espresso. Ahh bliss. Sadly, this second of tranquillity is short-lived as powertrain integration program supervisor Sarah is available in and begins discussing the prototype checks they’ve been doing and the difficulties they’re having finetuning the gearbox. She approaches Dave and asks:
– Dave the engineer
Troubleshooting this purely utilizing checks shall be nigh unattainable particularly given the very tight launch timeline. So, it’s as much as Dave to provide you with some ideas, to make all of it “sound correct” – no matter which will imply.
If it seems good, it sounds good, proper?
Like in different utility areas, environment-friendly built-in NVH simulation workflows for electrical powertrain evaluation are available. Ranging from electro-magnetic forces calculated in Simcenter MotorSolve and a structural Finite Component mannequin, a Simcenter 3D Movement mannequin that features detailed gear and bearing fashions can very precisely predict the structural vibrations of the outer housing of the electrical powertrain. With that data, Simcenter 3D Acoustics can simply predict the noise signature. The superior post-processing capabilities give a radical understanding of how this signature got here to be, as seen within the completely different end result plots under.
Weblog coming in September!!!How Simcenter Motorsolve and Simcenter 3D Movement can predict the structural vibrations of the electrical powertrain outer housing. 
The query nonetheless stays: if we alter the design to scale back a very powerful order line, will this make the powertrain “sound higher”?
Why can’t we simply hearken to a simulation mannequin?
As a matter of truth, we will! The newest releases of Simcenter 3D Acoustics built-in a brand new Auralization product that permits CAE engineers to take their simulation outcomes and hearken to them. Understanding how somebody will understand sound coming from an acoustic supply helps to extra intuitively design and optimize the acoustic efficiency of merchandise. Moreover, with such a digital acoustics mannequin, you allow a much wider set of stakeholders, like engineers, marketeers, or gross sales personnel, to hearken to the acoustic signature of various product designs and choose the very best one with their ears.
Let’s get again to Dave and his effort to make the electrical powertrain “sound higher.” Utilizing this new toolset, he can merely take the order minimize simulation outcomes from his earlier evaluation, outline one of many typical velocity profiles thought of throughout validation testing, and hearken to the produced sound with a couple of clicks. Furthermore, he can plot the time information of the powertrain noise and analyze its sound high quality utilizing a devoted device to guage sound high quality metrics like loudness and sharpness.
The sound is enjoying in his headphones in lower than a minute, and he lastly understands what Sarah means with “it doesn’t but sound correct.”
With these leads to hand, the dialogue with Sarah turns into so much simpler, and by going by way of a number of eventualities collectively, they quickly understand the gearbox causes the excessive sharpness ranges that lead to the principle annoyance, however the electro-magnetic forces drive the loudness, as you hear and see within the outcomes under.
Can we prolong the digital acoustics mannequin to the entire automotive? Or is that an excessive amount of to ask?
Parts or assemblies like a powertrain will not be a closing product, they’re a part of an even bigger system. To deal with this extra stage of complexity, the Simcenter 3D Acoustics Auralization product integrates the aptitude to create multi-track eventualities. Every of the tracks consists of
- A supply, which could be a rotating machine as described above or a simulated or measured soundtrack in wav or mp3 format
- A simulated switch operate outlined by time-domain impulse responses both immediately calculated utilizing Simcenter 3D Ray Acoustics or obtained by post-processing frequency-domain simulation outcomes from Simcenter 3D Finite Component or Boundary Component fashions
As soon as the situation is ready up, you possibly can simply swap tracks on and off interactively or change their relative significance. This allows you to just about place the product in its meant operational atmosphere and hearken to the ensuing soundscape. See the illustration of a typical car inside situation under.
By exploiting these new functionalities, Dave not solely feels extra assured about his suggestions, he can even let Sarah instantly hearken to his ideas and provides suggestions.
The digital acoustics conclusion
The Simcenter 3D Acoustics Auralization product allows CAE engineers to hearken to completely different simulation fashions and introduce them into their meant person atmosphere (reminiscent of a automotive with acoustic trimming, street noise within the background, and music enjoying over the radio). Furthermore, evaluating the sound high quality of those digital acoustics eventualities according to typical requirements utilized in trade helps to grasp the impression of design modifications and make suggestions that can successfully “make the merchandise sound higher.” Inviting key stakeholders to hearken to advised enhancements will present them with the anticipated closing person expertise, enabling them to offer suggestions early within the growth cycle.
To study extra in regards to the Simcenter 3D Acoustics suite of simulation instruments, go to the devoted Acoustic Simulation section of the Siemens Simcenter CAE Simulation web site.
Content material associated to digital acoustics
Leveraging Simulation in the Digital Twin: Simcenter 3D – Acoustics – On-demand Webinar
Acoustic Simulation – Internet web page – Siemens simulation instruments
The science of music – Weblog – Acoustic testing tools
Vehicle NVH integration: how to combine test and simulation – Weblog
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