NVH Vehicle Simulator

The NVH Simulator accurately recreates the noise and vibration of a vehicle in a user interactive environment. Three systems are available

Desktop NVH Simulator: for use in an office environment, enables the user to experience the sounds of vehicle while driving through a virtual scenario shown on a desktop monitor.

Full Vehicle NVH Simulator: project-based solution where the user decides what vehicle is to be used, whether vibration needs to be added to various parts of the vehicle (for example, to the seat, the pedals, the steering wheel). The complete vehicle is situated in front of a projection screen on which a virtual visual scenario is projected. The user sits in the vehicle and experiences the sounds and vibrations of the vehicle being assessed while 'driving' through a virtual scenario. The simulator responds to the drivers input, synthesising and reproducing the correct sound and vibration for the instantaneous vehicle parameters, which are presented in conjunction with a representative visual scenario. Just as in a real vehicle, the stimuli are affected by changes in the road surface, vehicle speed, engine speed and throttle position.

On-Road Simulator: enables the harmonic sounds from any Simulator Model to be experienced while driving on the road in a real car.

New features in PULSE 12

• Road Creator Module: automatic visual scenario generator
• State Tuner Enhancement: enables switching points in a “switched mode System” to be tuned for sound quality and for performance
• Toolbox Enhancement: enables orders to be visualised, modified, imported and exported.

Benefits

• Assessment of a virtual vehicle by free driving allows decisions to be made which cannot be achieved by traditional on-road or in-room methods
• New vehicles can be 'driven' and assessed well in advance of first physical prototypes
• Drastically reduces the time taken to assess multiple driving conditions
• Simulator database ensures that a vehicle is always available to be driven, unaffected by effect of modifications, weather, age, etc.
• Vehicle level model can be expanded to a full model by adding in source or path contribution data
• NVH simulator model of a new vehicle becomes more complete and accurate as the programme moves from high-level target setting through target cascading and concept evaluation into the detailed design phase
• Increases confidence in the NVH decision-making process
• Highlights the importance of part-load conditions on the overall perception of powertrain sound quality .
• Change modelling makes CAE data much more useable, making it easy to create a new variant of a vehicle in the simulator
• Allows CAE analysts to appreciate the relative benefits of different designs