SimRod experience: Sound Quality for (H)EV

When I say: “Petrol-heads are addicted to the smell of burning rubber and the roar of car engines,” note that I use the word ‘roar’ and not ‘noise.’ That’s because you should never use the word ‘noise’ when talking about sound quality with automotive lovers if you want to stay out of trouble.

And rightly so. You would not use the word ‘noise’ to describe music either. A good engine should sound like a symphonic orchestra… or a heavy-metal band for some of us. But if it is comparable to music, let’s now imagine going to a concert where you arrive early. What do you hear? Chatter, coughing, A/C noise, doors opening and closing, etc. It is always quite a different soundscape before the music starts playing, right?

Well, this is what the NVH engineers in the automotive industry must tackle: when the orchestra is not playing and the music no longer masks the noise, the rest of the sounds must be right too. The sound quality of the car should match the bar.

Sound Quality demonstration on SimRod

To showcase this technology, we have used our digital twin demonstrator, the SimRod. Previously, we had already identified an annoying noise produced by the SimRod gearbox, especially when using the vehicle in ECO mode. Now, we used this same demonstrator to show the power of the Simcenter platform for Sound Quality Engineering. The Simcenter platform for Sound Quality Engineering helps NVH engineers design irresistible brand sounds.

Simcenter has implemented a turnkey solution to measure, listen, analyze and combine objective and subjective evaluations of this new soundscape. You can see how in the video below:

If you are interested in learning more about it and how a manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles uses this solution, then check out Karma Automotive NVH team’s testimonial.