Global competition has drastically changed the NVH engineering process over the last 20 years. The demand to consistently shorten and improve the development cycle has forced engineers to develop new methods to reduce needs for physical prototype testing and to increase prediction capability. A new paradigm is being introduced that focuses on virtual prototyping as a way to deploy the "Design Right First Time" approach. The objective is to allow engineers to simulate the effect of a large variety of design alternatives on the NVH overall performances. This is particularly valuable in the early stages of development where special focus is given to the optimisation of design parameters.
Nowadays, a large number of advanced experimental, CAE and hybrid NVH modeling techniques are available and applied succesfully in automotive development. But still missing is the sound quality aspect or the human factor in the whole engineering process. It is of crucial importance that the verification of designs and design alternatives takes into account the subjective perception of the system characteristics. Imagine what could be achieved if acoustical engineers and designers could listen to their virtual models from the initial stages of development and, for example, modify a virtual engine mount to tune their car for improved sportiveness. The benefits would be impressive and the whole concept of sound quality engineering would be drastically changed.
