Methodology to Vibrational Noise Attenuation of Panels in Vehicles through Sound Absorption Materials

Thevibroacoustic comfort in vehicles is an important quality item and every day the carmakers look for new solutions for noise reduction and refinement of comfort.This study proposes the application of an experimental technique to determine the noise attenuation from the vibration of panels of a vehicle through the application of material for sound absorption.Sound absorbing materials are used in vehicles to attenuate high frequency noise, due to their characteristics. This study proposes the use of this type of material to attenuate noise of medium frequencies (100 – 600 Hz), predominant in structure-borne noise, complementing the existing ones, in order to refine the vibroacoustic behavior of the vehicle. Sound absorption materials are easy to handle, have a lower cost and require a short time for implementation.For the development of this work, a car cabin prototype was built using tubes and steel plates for the experimental tests.A finite element numerical model was created to obtain the vibrational behavior of the panels in this frequency range through modal analysis test. Experimental tests were performed on vibroacoustic frequency response function (FRF). It was observed in the tests performed that the application of sound absorption material attenuates significantly the vibration noise of panels in the range of medium frequencies, from 100 to 600 Hz. This methodology will allow the development of proposals for noise attenuation solutions and refinement of acoustic comfort with lower time and costs.