Analysis of time structure of gear rattle.pdfVIP

ANALYSIS OF THE TIME STRUCTURE OF GEAR RATTLE 1 2 Markus Bodden , Ralf Heinrichs 1 Ingenieurbüro Dr. Bodden Herthastr. 29, D-45131 Essen, Germany, http ://duct-sound.de 2 Ford Werke AG Acoustic Center, Spessartstraße, D-50725 Köln, Germany INTRODUCTION The sound of a vehicle is composed of a variety of different components. Besides the maj or contributors such as engine, wind and tire noises several other sources might contribute to the overall audible sound, and thus influence the overall Sound Quality impression of the vehicle. One of these specific noise components is gear rattle. This is a noise which is produced by the gear, and which might be audible in specific driving conditions in the interior of the ve- hicle. Once it is detected, this gear rattle can reduce the overall Sound Quality impression sig- nificantly, or it can even be associated to a technical defect. It has been shown in a previous paper [1] that spectral cues can be used to analyse and quantify gear rattle for vehicles with a diesel engine. A new spectral metric has been developed which allows to predict the rating of gear rattle from an artificial head recording of the interior vehicle noise in a defined driving condition. But, a closer look to the characteristics of gear rattle shows that besides spectral cues also the time structure of the sound carries perceptual re- levant information. In this paper a new method to analyse gear rattle and to predict the rating of subj ects will be presented which is based on an analysis of the time structure. GEAR RATTLE Gear rattle is a phenomenon which is not constantly audible in the interior vehicle sound, but which can be detected in specific driving conditions. In [1] we have defined a driving condition that is typcial for a situation in which a customer might detect the gear rattle. T