NVH analysis and improvement of a vehicle body structure using DOE method

The improvement of a vehicle body structure under the constraint of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) behavior is investigated by using design of experiments (DOE) method. First, car body geometry is modeled in CATIA and meshed in HYPERMESH software. Then, a modal analysis between 0–50 Hz is done by MSC NASTRAN. A frequency map of the body is extracted and compared with a reference map to identify shortcomings. By using factorial and response surface Methods (RSM), optimization of the NVH performance is accomplished. An algorithm is proposed to improve the car NVH behavior. At last, in order to verify the present algorithm, forced vibration is analyzed under real road inputs for the model before and after improvement.