Researchers Tout Noise Modeling Software

A group of British and German researchers is developing software to predict noise and vibration levels of vehicles that are still in the design stage.

The consortium says there are no modeling tools today that can study structural vibration frequencies above 500Hz. Its aim is to develop a computer simulation program that can predict vibration and noise levels in car bodies across the entire human auditory spectrum.

The six-member group, which includes Jaguar Land Rover, is headed by scientists at the U.K.'s Nottingham Trent University. Other participants include the Universities of Nottingham and Southampton in the U.K. and German tech firms inuTech GmbH and CDH AG.

The team says a major challenge is dealing with multiple materials and the thousands of connections between components in a vehicle. They say their software must be able to analyze structural dynamics on an extremely fine scale, because even minor changes can have a huge impact on vibration characteristics.