American Journal of Applied Sciences 11 (10): 1784-1797, 2014

ISSN: 1546-9239
© 2014 M. Al-Zubi et al. This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution
(CC-BY) 3.0 license
doi:10.3844/ajassp.2014.1784.1797 Published Online 11 (10) 2014 (http://www.thescipub.com/ajas.toc)

SOUND AND VIBRATION CONSIDERATIONS OF SOME

MATERIALS FOR AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
APPLICATIONS
1
Mohammad Al-Zubi, 2Emmanuel Ayorinde,
1
Nabeel Alshabatat, 2Mehmet Dundar and 3Yellapu Murty
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tafila Technical University, Jordan
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA
3
MC Technologies, 1163 River Chase Ridge, Charlottesville, VA 22901, USA

Received 2014-02-23; Revised 2014-05-08; Accepted 2014-10-27

ABSTRACT
Vibration and noise amelioration in and across several components and modules of the automotive,
such as the panels, doors, engine covers, seats and others, is extremely important. NVH performance
has been recognized as a critical factor in the purchase decisions of many buyers. This study examines
the vibro-acoustic characteristics of some monolithic and composite materials and some generally
periodic material structures. By experimental and numerical/empirical methods, it explores some
opportunities for minimizing the transmission of noise and vibration. Some new constructions not
hitherto probed for vibro-acoustic fitness are examined. Results from this study are expected to
contribute towards design inputs to obtain better performances.

Keywords: Noise, Vibration, NVH, Composite, Vibro-Acoustic, Automotive

1. INTRODUCTION (Vardan, 2003) that the earlier power-trains were so

noisy that the wind noise could not even be heard at
Although automobiles, marine craft and all from within the vehicle, having been over-
aeronautical structures all need good vibro-acoustics, shadowed by the internal vehicle noise. The power
the first case is probably more critical because there train noise was soon conquered, but concern over
are far many more automobiles than ships or aircraft. wind noise immediately surfaced. He remarked from
The qualities of importance initially advertized by historical data that the persistent pursuit of ever -
automotive vehicle manufacturers were performances increasing noise and vibration performance has been
in terms of horsepower and speed. Historically, driven mainly by customer demand and not legal or
consumers demanded progressively more driver and regulatory requirements and standards.
passenger comfort satisfaction for their vehicles. This Kropp (Vardan, 2003) concluded that “noise and
induced the input of significant levels of effort by vibration have become a statement of car quality” and
manufacturers into the systematic reduction, further stated that people buy cars to get from one point
containment and possible elimination of noise and to another-reliably and comfortably, but also expect a
vibration in the automotive environment. In this quiet ride for their money and usually want, among
pursuit, the preliminary measure was that of simply other things, to listen to the car radio without
stuffing as much insulation as practicable into the disturbance by much noise. This view from academic
panels (door, roof, floor) to curb rattling movements experts in the automotive noise and vibration field
and produce quiet. It has been recalled by Saha expresses the mind of automotive industry experts as
Corresponding Author: Ayorinde E., Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA

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well. Parry Jones (Parry-Jones and Weaver, 1999), primary considerations are those of the transmission of
Group Vice President, Ford Motor Co. said “NVH is sound through materials and also the vibration of plates
overwhelmingly important to customers. You never, and plate-like materials.
ever get lucky with NVH. The difference between good With respect plate vibration, Poisson (1894) first
cars and great cars is fanatical attention to detail”. examined the vibrations of circular plates, analyzing
Noise is the term used for unwanted sound; vibration the fixed, simply supported and free edges cases.
means to-and-fro motion; and harshness is the term often Kirchhoff (1850) extended Poissons work to more
used for subjective perception of low-frequency (25-100 cases, giving the full theory for the free circular plate
Hz) vehicle vibration, usually perceived as rough, case. Rayleigh (1945) developed a general theory for
grating and discordant. Noise, Vibration and Harshness all cases of vibrating circular plates, based on an
(NVH). Is the term often used for the science and energy principle. Timoshenko (2011) analyzed the
technology of managing vibration and noise frequencies, transverse vibration of variously-constrained circular
levels, energies and patterns. and rectangular plates and obtained natural frequency
The traditional method for constructing the formulas. Hoshino et al. (2003) simulated and
automotive panel structure has been typically to layer analyzed the vibration reduction of heavy duty truck
a metal panel outer member with a visco-elastic cabins. Wang et al. (2009) investigated plate vibration
damping layer, then a porous layer and then a mode shapes and concluded that the mode-2 mode
rubber/plastic layer in order to improve vibro-acoustic shape may be identical to mode-1 except for a 45°
performance. More recently, (Ho and Berkhoff, 2014, rotation and the resulting mode-3 may be identical to
Jain, 2002), efforts have been directed in the industry the standard mode-2 (i.e., having one nodal circle).
towards improving the nature and architecture of the Concerning acoustics, Zwikker and Kosten (1949)
panel itself, such that extra material and labor costs gave a deep literature review with data and tables on
are saved and yet such panels have good vibro- the sound absorption coefficients of several materials.
acoustic performance. Exhaustive treatment of vibro- Kurtze (1959) developed a principle of wave
acoustics for automotive panels is sparse in the propagation. Dym and Lang (1974) obtained analytic
literature and thus still has room for more work. expressions for impedance and transmission loss of a
Accordingly, the objectives of this study are to sandwich panel. Woodcock and Nicolas (1995), for
investigate by experimental, analytical and numerical the first time, studied many aspects of low-frequency
methods the vibration and acoustic performances of range sound, with emphasis on the finite-size panel.
many trial panel materials and to consider what Wang et al. (2010) combined various numerical
physical and material properties and architectural calculation methods to model and analyze the acoustic
constructions yield better vibration and acoustic characteristics of a heavy truck cab.
performances and thus advance towards the Many materials could be deployed in the effort to
development of better and newer automotive panels reduce sound and vibration. Fabric-like materials could
with good NVH performances. The class of Periodic be highly efficient acoustic absorbers, but in terms of
Cellular Material Structures (PCMS) has been vibration, they would usually be framed in a rigid
investigated by the authors (Al-Zubi et al., 2013), but structure or sandwiched in such layers, so that the
this article treats several other categories of materials. assembly could resist vibration. Vibro-acoustic sandwich
Automotive panels and other components come in constructions could be assembled in a wide variety of
various shapes. However, for sample test purposes, as ways. Basalt and resonated cotton have been known and
long as the same investigative test samples geometry produced commercially for acoustic treatments (Ross,
and boundary conditions are used, the comparisons 2006; ASI, 2012). In this study, for comparison
between different materials or constructions remain purposes, we tested basalt wool, resinated cotton, glass
valid with scaled-up production parts. It is also wool and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET).
customary to test a relatively few number of full-scale Foam materials, both plastic and metallic, have also
parts. Thus it has been found satisfactory to test large been utilized for vibro-acoustic padding purposes. A
numbers of relatively simple (such as circular, sandwich construction Comprising Cold Rolled Steel
rectangular,) parts, to start with. The scientific aspects (CRS) skins and a closed-cell, hard foam (LE 5208) core
of the work center on sound and vibration and the is also examined in this study.

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In a similar way, honeycomb periodic structures are For the circular plate, whose elements are shown in
well known and have been put to many uses, although Fig. 2, the potential and kinetic energies, U and T
in terms of particular geometries and component respectively, may be stated as Equation 4 and 5:
materials (skin and core), there are still many new
possibilities. It has been noted that traditional  ∂ 2 w 1 ∂w 1 ∂ 2 w2  2
∂2w 
2  − 2 (1 − V )
honeycomb materials, by their fixed architecture,  + + 2 
D 2π R  ∂r 2
 r ∂r r ∂ θ  ∂r 2 
seriously limit design options, are very difficult if not U = ∫ ∫  rdθ dr (4)
2 0 0  1 ∂w ∂ 2 w   ∂  1 ∂w   
2
impossible to make multifunctional and have closed  r ∂r + ∂θ 2  + 2 (1 − V )  ∂r  r ∂θ   
cells, preventing embedment.       

2. THEORY And:

2.1. Acoustics ρ h 2π R & 2

T=
2 ∫ ∫ w rdrdθ (5)
The acoustics theory of waves incident on plates 0 0

has been treated by many authors in books and

technical papers. We have followed the development Where:
by (Zwikker and Kosten, 1949; Biot, 1956; Allard et al., R = Radius at general point, R is radius of the plate
1999). The fundamental theories are available in relevant w = Deflection of the plate
texts and only very brief summaries are relevant here. h = The thickness of the plate
The acoustic analysis can be established by starting from ρ = The mass density of the plate
the Equations of motion and continuity of an ν = The Poisson ratio and E is Young“s modulus of
infinitesimal layer, thickness dx, of the vibrating the plate material
medium, under pressure p, as shown in the following D = The flexural (i.e., bending) rigidity of the plate,
figure, neglecting damping effects for simplicity. given by Equation 6:
By carrying out a force-balance on the acoustic
element of Fig. 1, the governing Equation, where K is Eh3
D= (6)
bulk modulus, subscript o refers to air, ρ is density and ω 12 (1 − v 2 )
is frequency, becomes Equation 1:

∂ 2 P ρ0 ∂ 2 P For harmonic vibrations in axi-symmetric cases, the

(1) vibration frequency in all cases can be determined
∂x 2 K 0 ∂t 2
(Timoshenko, 2011) by the Equation 7:
Results, having solution of pattern Equation 2:
α D
ω= (7)
p = Aexp ( jωt ) exp ( −γ 0 x ) (2) R2 ρ h

And, if z is plate impedance and c0 is velocity of where, α is called modal constant and D is the modulus of
propagation of sound waves in free air, the acoustic rigidity. For a free circular plate with n nodal diameters and
absorption coefficient is finally given by Equation 3: s nodal circles, the values of α are given for some modes in
the following table. Table 1 shows values computed for the
4 Re ( z / ρ0 c0 ) first three modes for a steel plate with Poisson”s ratio of
a0 = (3)
( Re ( z / ρ c ) + 1) + ( Im ( z / ρ c ))
2 2
0 0 0 0 0.33. Our work showed that Rayleigh”s approximate energy
method under-predicted the natural frequency by only 6%
relative to the bessel function solution.
2.2. Vibration
Good automotive NVH performance depends on
Similarly, we may briefly outline the vibration proper selection of materials and structures that can make
dynamics of the circular plate, which can be maximal contributions to the desired qualities. Effort is
developed in many ways. One way is to use the therefore being continually made by the automotive
classical small-deflection theory of plates, developed companies in the improvement of such materials and
by Lagrange (1815). structures and methods for their analyses and production.

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Fig. 1. Acoustic element

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. (a) Element of vibrating plate, (b) Model of deformed coordinates in plate vibration (Timoshenko, 2011)

Table 1. Sample alpha values for different nodal lines and circles (Timoshenko, 2011)
n
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S 0 1 2 3
0 …………. …………… 5.251 12.23
1 9.076 20.52 35.24 52.91
2 38.52 59.86 …….. ………..

3. MATERIALS thicker, multi-layer fiberglass material and a PET sample

were obtained from B and K for comparison. Tested
This study examines the acoustic and vibration foam materials include a wave-formed polyurethane
performances of some fibrous, foam, honeycomb, material from B and K and two custom-made materials
monolithic and sandwich and materials that could be from Athena Engineers, Lake Orion, USA. These were
deployed in automotive panels and general engineering development-stage compounds from a collaborator of
structural components. The study focuses on standard theirs, which we expanded in our own laboratories. The
acoustic and vibration performances in terms of acoustic seven honeycomb materials tested are listed in Table 2.
absorption coefficient and vibration frequency response These include a traditional all-aluminum honeycomb
and deflections. The materials tested are shown in Fig. 3. periodic material and a new one with CRS-skin and
The fibrous materials considered for acoustic absorption nomex core. Monolithic lexan plates of various layering
are fiberglass, resinated cotton and basalt wool. A and perforation styles and a sandwich material having

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Cold Rolled Steel (CRS) skins and a hard-foam core are Inc. The tube utilized was the B and K Two-Microphone
among those considered. Impedance Measurement Tube Type 4206, fitted with
The material of the aluminum samples is aluminum two specially designed ¼-inch microphones. Specimens
6061 T6 and the steel is stainless steel 304. To the of diameters 100 mm and 29 mm respectively were cut
authors‟ best knowledge, the vibro-acoustics of the new from each material for acoustic absorption tests and the
materials have not been considered before. larger samples were also subjected to impact response
vibration tests. Results were obtained from experimental,
4. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP analytical and numerical approaches. Figure 4 is an
The “PULSE” 14.0 (and later the 16, with the image illustration of essential parts of the acoustic setup.
software Pulse Reflex 16.1) vibro-acoustic For the Frequency Response (FRF) test, an impact
instrumentation and software platform was utilized in hammer arrangement is utilized as detailed in Al-Zubi et al.
our experiments, along with the impedance tube, impact (2013). For the full modal test, we used 17 roving
hammer and accelerometers, all from Bruel and Kjaer, hammer points.

(a)

(b)

(c)

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(d)

(e)

Fig. 3. (a)-(e). Images of Test Materials (a) Fabric-like materials (b) honeycomb materials (c) foam materials (d) monolithic
structures (e) sandwich materials

Fig. 4. Sketch of the 2-Microphone impedance method (B and K)

Table 2. Table of tested materials and some properties

(a) Fabrics
Material Weight (gm) Thickness (mm) Density (kg/m−3)
Basalt 15.70 12.7 157.00
Resinated cotton 24.68 17.0 184.84
Fiberglass 4.05 9.5 54.36
B and K Fiberglass (yellow) 22.35 27.0 105.40
B and K PET (poly-ethylene-terephthalate) 3.91 18.0 27.65

(b) Foams
Material Weight (gm) Thickness (mm) Density (kg/m−3)
B and K Polystyrene foam 7.35 32.0 29.24
Orange magic foam 11.47 7.5 194.72
White magic foam 24.64 11.0 285.20

(c) Honeycombs
Cell Weight Total density Young”s Poisson”s
# Panel ID Skin Core size (mm) (gm) (kg/m−3) modulus (MPa) ratio
1 AA.2-95 (A) Glass epoxy Aluminum 6.3 28.34 48.0 2438 0.4
t = 0.018” Honeycomb
ρ = 5.2 pcf
2 PP5.0-90 (B) Glass epoxy w/ Polypropylene 6.3 29.5 47.0 1100 0.28
peel ply t-0.014” Honeycomb
ρ = 5 pcf
3 AA3.6-80 (C) Aluminum epoxy Aluminum 10.3 26.1 140.0 2100 0.35
primer finish (t = 0.02) Honeycomb
ρ = 3.6pcf
4 PN1-1/8-3.0 (D) Polyester Aramid nomex 6.3 17.5 89.50 2250 0.25
5 AL Aluminum 0.032”, 0.02” Aluminum 10.3 40.8 130.65 2000 0.40
6 FGN Fiberglass (0.01”) Nomex HC 6.3 21.0 52.86 1800 0.37
7 StN CRS (0.024”) Nomex Honeycomb - 79.25 179.76 - -

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(d) Monolithic and sandwich materials

Density (kg/m3) Young”s modulus (Pa) Poisson”s ratio Thickness (mm)
----------------------- ---------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------------
Material Skin Core Skin Core Skin Core Skin Core Mass (gram)
CRS w/LE5208 7870 800.0 205e9 1.35e9 0.290 0.27 0.750 5.00 128.00
USIL Light 7870 1990.0 205e9 12.85e9 0.290 0.26 0.375 0.75 38.20
Lexan 1200 2350e9 0.375 2.200 21.00

5. NUMERICAL METHODS at multiple frequencies and manifest peaks that are for
the major part, below the polyurethane level.
The Nastran and Abaqus Finite Element methods and
the Matlab numerical solutions package were utilized for 6.3. Honeycomb Materials
numerical solutions. Vibration eigensolutions were The acoustic responses of seven such structures are
obtained via the Nastran procedure for circular plates, shown in Fig. 7a and basic vibration signatures in Fig.
using the Hypermesh (version 10 from Altair 7b. There is none of the materials that is a clearly better
Engineering Inc) pre- and post-processor for the selected one over all the frequencies. The absorption coefficient
frequency range 0 to 10,000 Hz. A total of 9432 pshell curves manifest many peaks. The values generally
elements were utilized with a triangular mesh of density increase until around 3-4 kHz, when they generally
250 using the sol 103 (for normal modes) solution decrease. For a number of the materials, the highest
procedure. For the Abaqus procedure, all samples were
absorption values approach unity.
also meshed by using the Hypermesh as a preprocessor
and then Abaqus/Standard 3D was used as a solver to 6.4. Monolithic and Sandwich Materials
calculate the first three natural frequencies and the mode
shapes of the samples. The Lanczos Eigensolver Method A material of one nature acting alone is here
was selected in Abaqus/Standard 3D to determine the referred to as monolithic. Such materials may be used
first three fundamental frequencies and mode shapes as skins for sandwiches and as partition materials. They
because this method is a powerful tool for extraction of tend to be metallic or other relatively acoustically hard
the extreme eigenvalues and the corresponding materials. The monolithic material tested here is a
eigenvectors of a sparse symmetric generalized single-layer lexan specimen and the two representative
eigenproblem. All samples were taken to be solid and the sandwich materials examined are Cold Rolled Steel
C3D4 (tetra 4) element type was used. For Matlab (CRS)/LE5208, having cold rolled steel skins with a
solutions, some reference code (Yang, 2005) was utilized hard rubbery core LE5208 (proprietary product by L
in writing a Matlab computer program to calculate the and L Inc) and also the USIL light with steel skins and
natural frequencies and animate their mode shapes. thin polypropylene core.
Figure 8a and b show low acoustic absorption over
6. RESULTS a wide frequency range for these materials. The
absorption of the CRS material is practically negligible
6.1. Fabric Materials at less than 0.1, while the USIL Light attains a low
absorption of 0.15 to 0.2 in about a 200Hz interval
Figure 5 shows the acoustic absorption of fabrics around 1100 Hz. The monolithic solid lexan only
The absorption coefficient in general increases achieves about 0.25 to 0.3 only in a narrow frequency
monotonically with frequency. The thicker B and K band of about 1100Hz to 1200 Hz. Figure 8c shows the
fiberglass shows a much improved absorption over the vibration modal spectrum of CRS/LE5208, charting the
thinner (9.5 versus 27 rmm, Table 2), other one. color-coded responses at the17 impact hit points and
consistently yielding the resonance frequencies.
6.2. Foam Materials Figure 7b is a histographic presentation of the first three
The absorption coefficient (Fig. 6) shows a number resonance frequencies of the honeycomb samples. The
of maxima and minima. The polyurethane foam, which CRS/nomex has the lowest resonances of all, while the
seems to perform best in the group, tested mainly has honeycomb A (glass/epoxy with aluminum honeycomb
about 0.7 absorption, although this spikes to about 0.85 core) has the highest. Figure 8d shows the contour-plot
at about 6200 Hz. The magic foams (two proprietary deformation shapes of the first three modes of vibration of
formulations) show resonance-type, rather than broad- the solid lexan sample, with a sample displacement legend.
band behavior in their acoustic performances. They peak The results agree with all published literature.

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Fig. 5. Acoustic performance of fabric-type materials

Fig. 6. Absorption coefficient versus frequency for foam materials

(a)

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(b)

Fig. 7a. Absorption coefficient versus frequency for honeycomb, (b) Honeycombs vibration

(a)

(b)

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(c)

(d)

Fig. 8a. Absorption coefficient versus frequency for monolithic materials. (b) Absorption coefficient versus frequency for sandwich
materials. (c) Vibration modal spectrum of CRS/LE 5208 sandwich. (d) Solid lexan-first 3 vibration modes

7. DISCUSSION low frequency waves have large wavelengths. For

highly porous materials these waves can infiltrate the
7.1. Fabric Materials material for the absorptive action by viscous shear and
thermal exchange, but cannot readily engage low-
Figure 5 shows that the acoustic absorption of porosity materials. It may be concluded that basalt,
fabric materials is generally higher than 0.5, from about fiberglass and PET show good absorption at high
2000 Hz. The yellow fiberglass and the resinated cotton frequency values. This suggests that judicious
actually cross the 0.5 absorption coefficient threshold at combinations of materials may be made to most
much earlier frequency values. The effect of higher effectively target any frequency range for absorption
density and wider thickness is to considerably increase increase. Fabric materials generally have high
acoustic absorption in the low frequency range and absorption coefficient at high frequencies and can
slightly decrease it in the higher frequency range. The effectively reduce high-frequency noise components.

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The thickness effect is also well illustrated in the dominate (the fluid moves as if it has no viscosity
results of Fig. 5. The thicker B and K fiberglass shows a except at the boundary layer). Vibration induces
much improved absorption over the thinner (9.5 mm pressure fluctuation in the fluid, which in turn induces
versus 27 mm, Table 2) one. The increase of thickness is temperature variation in the fluid-structure interface.
only beneficial up to a point, as sound pressure dies out Foam materials (Fig. 6) appear to be not as good as
with distance according to an exponential decrement law. fabric ones in containing sound. The performance of the
The maximum useful thickness is often called the critical magic foams is well below that of the polyurethane and
thickness. In practice, a thickness of about 40 cm is is unsatisfactory. Some re-formulation of the magic
considered to be the maximum. Resinated cotton shows foams seems to be required before they can give better
better performance than all other materials in the low acoustic response. It is proposed that this new class of
frequency range (for similar thickness) because of its magic foams be re-worked, especially as they are
better ability to be set in motion by incident sound believed to have acoustic absorption characteristics that
pressure than most other materials. This is why it has derive from their surface properties.
historically been widely applied for noise control. Ekici et al. (2012) investigated the acoustic response
Pieren et al. (2014) analyzed the acoustic behavior of of foams, both neat and with augmenting materials like
fabrics with varying air flow resistances. His tea leaf fibers, and luffa-cylindrica fibers, for different
experimental and numerical results for three different thicknesses. Their findings confirm that the range of our
types show that our results fall into the right zone. absorption values are very realistic.
7.2. Foam Materials 7.3. Honeycomb Materials
Foam materials are also widely applied for acoustic Honeycomb materials are used to combat excessive
abatement on account of their lightness and efficiency in noise as they are light and contain ample air volumes that
controlling sound of various frequencies. The absorption are useful in attenuating sound. Since they can be made
coefficient (Fig. 6) shows a number of peaks (max and to different geometries, a number of representative
min) related to the thickness of the material. This max- samples were examined for their acoustic behaviors.
min profile is undesirable because of unsteadiness of the The honeycomb structure is a typically complex one
acoustic absorption value. In order to smooth out the by virtue of the multiple units that are duplicated all over
absorption curve, random-sized wedge-shaped to make it up. Thus the occurrences of many internal
specimens do a better job. Acoustic response is resonances make its response to manifest several peaks,
dependent on foam cell behavior because the at varying frequencies. Figure 7a displays the acoustic
phenomena experienced with solid visco-elastic responses of seven honeycomb structures. As mentioned
materials are also observed with porous materials that before for foam materials, surface material placed on a
have been expanded from polymer stock. Thus, they porous or absorptive material acts in part as a spring-
are also subject to creep (strain increasing with time, mass structure which tends to increase low-frequency
for maintained stress), relaxation (stress decreasing absorption and decrease high-frequency absorption.
with time for maintained strain), hysteresis (energy Increasing thickness tends to have this effect as well in
loss over each cycle, for cyclic loading) and strain- both porous and absorbent materials.
The nomex material was found to exhibit superior
rate dependence of effective stiffness/Young”s
absorption for frequencies up to about 2000 Hz. Thus, in
modulus. The propagation of both sound and vibration
the absence of other solutions, physical compounding of
waves will be affected by the gas phase behavior, in this material could be used with other types to extend the
particular the gas properties and entrapment pressure. effective frequency range. Figure 7b shows the vibration
The overall acoustical behavior of the foam comes behaviors of all honeycombs tested.
from the collection of the micro-structural Acoustically, when a honeycomb structure is placed
characteristics of the local cells which themselves come behind a porous absorbent layer it improves the
from the frequency-dependent viscous and thermal absorption especially at low frequencies and can in fact
parameters. The two key parameters are porosity and broaden the frequency range of effectiveness. A very
permeability. At low frequencies the viscous effect is important property of the honeycomb is that its
dominant and at higher frequencies the viscous compartmental box structure forces the sound wave that
boundary layer becomes negligible and thermal effects intrudes into the honeycomb to propagate normal to the

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absorbing surface. The honeycomb structure has many obtained from the 17 impact test hit points for the
resonant modes because of its box structure in which CRS/LE5208 sandwich. This is an example, as the tests
very many compartments may resonate locally. Hence, were done for all materials. Individual variations occur
the acoustic absorption and Frequency Response among the results from hitting different points
Function (FRF) curves may show multiple peaks. because of the relative nearness or otherwise to the
The honeycomb materials were tested for vibration particular hit point of nodal lines in a given vibration
behavior using PULSE 16.1. To verify the experimental mode. The fact that the resonance frequency values in
results, finite element simulation was used to get the this figure are high, which is desirable in vehicle
natural frequencies and mode shapes for each of the applications as they are thus higher than the major
samples. The analysis of the vibration and acoustics of troublesome system and sub-system resonances and
honeycomb materials involves at least four key stiffness thus cannot interact with these to cause destructively
and strength properties in each direction-longitudinal and high deformations and consequential stresses.
transverse. These properties are Young”s modulus, shear Frommhold et al. (1992) investigated the acoustic
modulus, tensile strength and compressive strength. The absorption of a metal membrane box cavity draped
failure modes of the honeycomb are usually local around with a thinner metal membrane and variously
crushing, bending fracture, compression fracture, global with differ ent hole dimeters or none. The acoustic
buckling, face wrinkling with debonding, face wrinkling absorption of the holeless metal construction compares
with core-crushing and shear crimping. with our results, altough perforations, which essentially
The work of Lin et al. (2010) considered five add notable helmholtz resonator absorption effects
thicknesses of various combinations of PET appreciably enhance performance.
honeycomb and low-melting temperature plastics. It
can be seen from their absorption coefficient curves 8. CONCLUSION
that our values for various honeycomb structures
tested are appropriate. The experiments, analyses and numerical work in this
study have enabled the systematic examination of
7.4. Monolithic and Sandwich Material various types of materials and architectures for
The absorption coefficients of these materials, as suitability for NVH containment. The results have shown
shown in Figs. 8a and b, are so low because the that fibrous and fabric-type materials tend to possess
materials are acoustically hard. Generally, the rate at high acoustic absorption capabilities. Thus they could be
utilized to form part of synthesized panel materials to
which a flexible panel absorbs acoustic energy is
augment acoustic capability.
proportional to the product of the amplitude and
As seen in Fig. 7 the acoustic absorption
frequency of vibration, internal damping and frictional
coefficients of hard-core, hard-layered materials tend to
losses at its mounting edges. Fig. 8b shows very low
be low, unless the cores contain high-absorption
acoustic absorption over a wide frequency range for the materials. The acoustic absorption capabilities of
CRS sandwich material, due to its core being very hard. traditional honeycomb, materials were found to be high
However, over a small frequency band, there is an in the mid-frequency range (about 1500 to 4500 Hz).
improved, but still modest absorption for the USIL light. This is believed to be mainly due to the fact that the air
LE5208 is a hard, closed-cell foam that resists effective contained in the cells is sealed in and this enables the
intrusion of sound-bearing air into it. USIL light is much incident sound to be destructively reflected multiples of
thinner than the CRS (1.5 mm versus 6.5 mm total times. The acoustic absorption coefficients of non-
thickness) and is thus more vibrated by sinusoidal traditional-honeycomb, Periodic Cellular Material
pressure than CRS.Such materials as these might be used Structures (PCMS) had been found (Al-Zubi et al.,
for their vibration properties, but contribute relatively 2013) to be generally low wherever the in-structure air
little to acoustic performance. pockets were not confined and hence the acoustic
Lexan (a polycarbonate plastic) was examined as a damping of air was ineffective. In practice such
monolithic materials. The low values of lexan coefficient materials will have to be augmented with high-
in the range (Fig. 8a) show that this material is not good absorption materials as fillers and/or face attachments
for containing sound. Figure 8d indicates that the lexan for better acoustic performance.
material shows distinctness or clarity of vibration modes. With respect to vibration response, considering in
Figure 8c essentially collates the vibration responses general the first few modes, maximum vibration

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amplitude generally decreased with increase in mode Hoshino, H., T. Sakurai and K. Takahashi, 2003.
number, although for more complicated structures Vibration reduction in the cabins of heavy-duty
deviations to this occurred because of the presence of trucks using the theory of load transfer paths.
many sub-systems in such structures. As expected, JSAE Rev., 24: 165-171. DOI: 10.1016/S0389-
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