New insights of an energy flow visualization into vehicle design

In order to improve the product quality and to reduce the time-to-market in the vehicle development process, the use of new design tools is of fundamental importance. Providing additional insights in the structural response of the vehicle structure can lead to better understanding and subsequent improvement of the functional performance in terms of noise and vibration. An example is the use of energy as a response variable, originated from finite element (FE) responses, through the so-called Energy Flow Analysis (EFA). Since the outcome of this method complements the information provided by established variables as pressure or velocity, one can reveal important information regarding the understanding of the vibro-acoustic behavior of the system. The evaluation of the structural energy and its dominant energy flow paths can assist a design engineer in making design modifications, guided through an alternative perspective based on energy variables. The main interest in understanding the energy flow distribution among the subsystems is the identification of the dominant energy paths along a structure. The global energy overview can be used to investigate why and how the energy flow propagates over a certain region. This can provide new information regarding the designed structure for a fixed set of parameters and excitation localization. Subsequently, a design modification can be made within some specific components to change the energy transmission and so to redistribute the overall energy levels in the structure.