Specific polymeric and asphaltic materials are widely used for NVH automotive applications. If patches of such materials are properly collocated on vehicle’s panels, they are able to improve significantly noise and vibration performance by modulating damping and stiffness.This work presents a methodology for tuning a FE composite model, using optimization techniques to improve the correlation with the experimental modal tests performed.In particular, plain and ribbed aluminum plates have been considered for several covering ratios of three damping materials.The correlation between numerical and experimental data is achieved by monitoring dynamic parameters such as natural frequencies, mode shapes, and frequency response functions (FRFs). The optimization strategy consists of two steps and makes use of evolutionary and gradient-based algorithms. LMS Virtual.Lab® is used in this part of the work as an environment for correlation and optimization.In order to verify the reliability of the correlation, modal tests are performed on a particular vehicle’s panel.Copyright © 2013 by ASME