This article focuses on various features of a finite element analysis (FEA) program designed by IDIADA, a Barcelona-based company providing design, engineering, testing, and homologation services to the automotive industry. The program has been designed as a solution to the problem of squeaks and rattles in an automobile. FEA software used by engineers from automotive testing company IDIADA detects potential automotive noise. The company uses Abaqus Unified Finite Element Analysis from Dassault Systèmes’ brand Simulia. The team delivered a paper at the Simulia Customer Conference in Barcelona in May 2011 to present the latest improvements in their methodology, applied to rattle in a car instrument panel and correlated with real-world testing. Research has shown that a standard noise-and-vibration analysis method alone can’t model, or predict, the contact that will result in a rattle. The engineers need to come up with a simulation that can accommodate both frequency for noise and vibration and contact for squeak and rattle.
Part failure diagnosis for internal combustion engine using noise and vibration analysis