• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2012.04a
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• pp.447-452
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• 2012

Among the various elements affecting a customer's evaluation of automobile quality, buzz, squeak and rattle (BSR) are considered to be major factors. In most vehicle manufacturers, the BSR problems are solved by find-fix method with the vehicle road test, mainly due to various excitation sources, complex generation mechanism and subjective response. The aim of this paper is to develop the integrated experimental method to systematically tackle the BSR problems in early stage of the vehicle development cycle by resolving these difficulties. To achieve this aim, the developed experimental method ought to include the following requirements: to find and fix the BSR problem for modules instead of a full vehicle in order to tackle the problem in the early stage of the vehicle development cycle; to develop the exciter system including the zig and road-input-signal reproducing algorithm; to automatically localize the source region of BSR; to develop sound quality index that can be used to assess the subjective responses to BSR. Also, the BSR sound quality indexes based on the Zwicker's sound quality parameters using a multiple regression analysis. The four sound metrics from Zwicker's sound quality parameter are computed for the signals recorded for eight BSR noise source regions localized by using the acoustic-field visualized results. Then, the jury test of BSR noise are performed for participants. On a basis of the computed sound metrics and jury test result, sound quality index is developed to represent the harsh of BSR noise. It is expected that the developed BSR detection system and sound quality indexes can be used to reduce the automotive interior BSR noise in terms of subjective levels as well as objective levels.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.257-265
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• 2017

In this work, the effect of field-degradation of automotive polymeric interior parts on the squeak characteristics was studied for a number of used vehicles with various mileages and years of service. The purpose of this study was to characterize the squeak noise related with long-term degradation in service life. The characteristics of field-degraded polymeric samples are analyzed using Fourier transform infrared(FT-IR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy(SEM). Complicated carbonyl spectra from FT-IR were deconvoluted into various carbonyls to trace field-degradation phenomenon. In addition, various mechanical tests, i.e. tensile test, hardness test as well as coefficient of friction test, were performed to analyze the variation in mechanical properties due to field-degradation. Squeak noise was measured and analyzed by frequency analysis. It was shown that the changes in the chemical structures of polymer due to field-degradation influenced the variation in mechanical properties, and squeak noise may worsen by increasing the squeak noise level in the wide frequency range. The results indicated that customer complaints regarding the squeak noise coming from used vehicles might be one of the important reliability issues because the increase in sound pressure level especially in the high frequency range could annoy drivers and passengers.