Methods for an Efficient Product Development of Drive Components in Consideration of Complete Vehicle Criteria Using the Example of the Exterior Noise

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Albert Albers, since 12/2021
• Subject Area: Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426490586

Due to increasingly stringent formalities in sectors as exhaust gas emissions or noise emissions, new procedures for their ensured adherence become necessary for the development of new vehicles. Thereto, methods which are able to estimate and quantify influences of partial systems of the vehicle on the complete vehicle in an earlier stage of the vehicle development process, regarding the limit values, have to be developed. Hence, possibilities for an optimization of those partial systems can be deduced.In this research proposal, such a method, which enables development engineers to quantify and optimize influences of vehicle components, that gain more attention through the hybridization and electrification, is to be investigated and developed. This is to be verified, using the example of the vehicle exterior acoustics.Within the scope of a research project at IPEK – Institute of Product Engineering at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), a fundamental method for the scaling of the measurement procedure for the determination of the noise emitted by vehicles from large (in terms of DIN ISO 362-1) to small chambers was developed. This method is meant to allow engineers without significant competences in the fields of vehicle acoustics, to execute the procedure with lower effort and costs. It uses a simple model of source calculation, which from the present point of view is only valid for vehicles with conventional powertrains, using steady driving states and unvaried (sound) source positions respectively. As previously identified for the scaling of the measurement procedure, it is necessary to know the source position of the vehicle. This can be accomplished by an examination of the individual sources of a passenger car with a conventional power unit. For e.g. hybrid drive topologies or non-steady driving states however, this method is not immediately transferable, since the weighting or even the positions of the sources vary during the measuring procedure. Dynamic sound sources can emerge, depending on the operational state (e.g. engagement and disengagement of the internal combustion engine). This influences the scaling of the measurement setup significantly, which then would have to be adjusted in real-time during the measurement.Within the scope of the proposed research project, the method is to be extended by the aforementioned issues, as well as a virtual variation of the contribution of single sources of the vehicle, so that the position and the content of the respective sound source can be localized and quantified. Thereby, influences of components of novel drive topologies, or adjustments on a subsystem level in general, can be estimated in an earlier stage of the vehicle development process.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr.-Ing. Matthias Behrendt, until 11/2021