Aero-Vibro-Acoustics for Wind Noise Applications

Wind noise is high on automotive customers' minds when they judge the quality of a vehicle. In the J.D. Power 2014 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study [1], excessive wind noise is listed as no. 1 amongst the top 10 problems most commonly experienced by vehicle owners. Whereas automobile manufacturers have a good handle on optimizing aerodynamics for minimizing drag force, reducing wind noise has remained a stiff challenge.Wind noise comprises three advanced physical problems, making it more complicated to simulate and predict. As a result, until now automakers have had to rely heavily on costly and time-consuming wind tunnel testing for wind noise reduction. A new simulation method -Deterministic Aero-Vibro-Acoustics - has now been developed to solve all three physical problems involved in wind noise as a single set. This method is based on first principles not requiring statistical or empirical techniques such as transfer functions, and can be used by engineers to predict wind noise with accuracy and confidence.