Products

This PULSE software creates an interactive driving experience of a vehicle’s interior noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), enabling the actual experience of sound and vibration data. Highly accurate vehicle sound is played through headphones or speakers, allowing the driver to experience the sound quality of a vehicle throughout all of the dynamic aspects of driving such as changing gears and accelerating, and riding over different surfaces. This software is commonly paired with a steering wheel and pedals so that drivers can interact with NVH as they are used to. This immersive context for sound evaluations helps people select appropriate sounds and compare alternative designs – whether they are engineers or non-experts. NVH simulation increases confidence in the decision-making process, whether evaluating concepts or physical prototype updates.

USE SCENARIOS

• Virtual prototyping of NVH at any stage of the vehicle design process
• Setting NVH targets before physical prototyping, and cascading targets down to individual components
• Competitor vehicle benchmarking
• Powertrain sound quality assessment throughout development
• Non-expert NVH assessment by customers, management and marketing
• Helping computer-aided engineering (CAE) analysts understand the impact of design changes on the NVH characteristics of the vehicle

DEKSTOP DRIVING AND IN-VEHICLE OPTIONS

In addition to using a desktop PC paired with a wheel and pedal system, more options are available. A full-vehicle NVH simulator provides even more authenticity, displaying the track in front of a real, stationary vehicle that is equipped with speakers and shakers – allowing vibration simulation. An on-road simulator allows vehicle sounds to be evaluated while driving an actual car. Here, the sound of the existing vehicle and environment are modified rather than replaced, resulting in a natural presentation of the designed sound – in the most realistic simulation possible.

CAPABILITIES

• Switch between vehicles to compare competitors and design alternatives
• Rapidly assess multiple driving conditions and part-load conditions, to evaluate the vehicle over its full operating envelope
• Switch individual components on and off, and filter them in real-time to engineer the sound and vibration quality of the vehicle
• Drive any vehicle in the database at any time or in any weather conditions
• Create roads and tracks to suit the context and test demands
• Jury evaluation tools allow quantification of subjective opinions

TEST AND CAE DATA

Simulation models can contain any available NVH data, from simple recordings of the whole vehicle to an engineering model including path and source contribution data, and modified components. The simulator can easily incorporate data from CAE predictions, allowing subjective evaluations of virtual component designs when inserted in the real vehicle’s NVH data.