The time-domain substructure inverse matrix method has become a popular method to detect and diagnose problems regarding vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness, especially for those impulse excitations caused by roads. However, owning to its reliance on frequency response functions (FRFs), the approach is effective only for time-invariable linear or weak nonlinear systems. This limitation prevents this method from being applied to a typical vehicle suspension substructure, which shows different nonlinear characteristics under different wheel transient loads. In this study, operational excitation was considered as a key factor and applied to calculate dynamic time-varying FRFs to perform accurate time-domain transient vibration transfer path analysis (TPA). The core idea of this novel method is to divide whole coupled substructural relationships into two parts: one involved time-invariable components; normal FRFs could be obtained through tests directly. The other involved numerical computations of the time-domain operational loads matrix and FRFs matrix in static conditions. This method focused on determining dynamic FRFs affected by operational loads, especially the severe transient ones; these loads are difficult to be considered in other classical TPA approaches, such as operational path analysis with exogenous inputs (OPAX) and operational transfer path analysis (OTPA). Experimental results showed that this new approach could overcome the limitations of the traditional time-domain substructure TPA in terms of its strict requirements within time-invariable systems. This is because in the new method, time-varying FRFs were calculated and used, which could make the FRFs at the system level directly adapt to time-varying systems from time to time. In summary, the modified method extends TPA objects studied in time-invariable systems to time-varying systems and, thus, makes a methodology and application innovation compared to traditional the time-domain substructure TPA.
Time-Domain Substructure Transient Vibration Transfer Path Analysis Based on Time-Varying Frequency Response Functions under Operational Excitations