In automotive acoustics it is usually possible to use uncoupled acoustic analysis. Surface vibration data may be taken from a previous structural FE analysis or from experimental measurement.
For interior cavity problems the sound field is set up by a number of vibrating panels. For a particular point of interest, e.g. the driver’s outside ear, a contribution to the pressure at this point can be computed from each panel. These sum in the complex plane to give the resultant pressure. Panels which have a positive(negative) contribution relative to the resultant pressure are sources(sinks). Reducing vibration at a sink will actually make the problem worse!
Application Areas
- interior cavity resonances
- panel contributions
- source/sink identification
- drive-by noise
- air intake/exhaust analysis

radiation from air-intake unit
(model supplied by MIRA under the PACAN project)