Electrification and rising fuel prices lead automakers to focus on reducing component mass while maintaining excellent noise and vibration performance. Conducting high-accuracy Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) analyses during the early design phase is crucial to achieving this goal. Moreover, it is equally important to consider production constraints while upholding the essence of the design.
One of the big challenges for automakers is structure-borne noise at low frequencies. To reduce this noise, employing high-performance acoustic treatments is essential but must not add unnecessary weight or cost. Autoneum, one of the leading manufacturers in acoustic and thermal insulation materials for vehicles, has a long history of successfully using their internal workflow for solving this challenge.
Figure 1: Models for evaluating vehicle NVH performance
To democratise this workflow, Autoneum and Hexagon have worked together to integrate Autoneum’s state-of-the-art simulation process within the Actran Workflow Manager, a unified interface for creating vertical applications. Thanks to the Actran Workflow Manager, engineers can adjust the location, size, shape, and thickness of the treatments and easily assess their effectiveness by comparing multiple configurations and rapidly performing what-if analyses through a guided process, and removing the burden of complex pre- and post-processing tasks. MSC Nastran models can be post-processed, edited and relaunched from the Actran Workflow Manager user interface, providing more actionable information and a fluid user experience when iterating on multiple configurations.
Figure 2: Damping pad positioning workflow within the Actran Workflow Manager
Diego Copiello, Product Manager at Hexagon:
“Our users are weighing up the merits of more sustainable materials by evaluating several conflicting constraints such as NVH, cost and weight. By implementing best practices from Autoneum and Hexagon into a single environment, we offer a robust and systematic workflow making it easier to get actionable insights”
“Overall, this is an important step to fulfilling Hexagon’s mission to provide manufacturers with the tools and capabilities to obtain the highest cost saving and an optimal NVH design.”
Davide Caprioli, Head of Acoustic and Thermal Management at Autoneum, adds:
“The global availability of this solution marks the first step in our partnership with Hexagon and strengthens the position of Autoneum’s established methodology for the prediction and attenuation of structure-borne noise as the global standard in the NVH field. The integration of our SILVER tool into Actran offers engineers an efficient and standardised process for reducing interior noise and optimising the NVH damping performance of vehicle components, which allows them to accelerate the design process of sustainable acoustic treatments without adding unnecessary weight or costs.”
With many decades of experience in NVH CAE simulations, and strong partnerships such as the one with Autoneum aimed at optimising and standardising processes in NVH design, and a strong commitment to sustainability, Hexagon is charting the course into the future of the mobility.
The Multiphysics suite from Hexagon empowers makers with simulation technologies that solve real world engineering problems, find out more here. Or contact the team and speak directly to the experts.
About Autoneum
Autoneum is globally leading in acoustic and thermal management for vehicles. The Company develops and produces multifunctional, lightweight components and systems for interior floor and engine bay as well as
the underbody. Customers include almost all automobile manufacturers in Europe, North & South America, Asia and Africa. Autoneum operates 53 production facilities and employs around 11 720 people in 24 countries. The Company with its headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland, is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange
(ticker symbol AUTN).
