Evaluation of the Rattle Noise of a Vehicle Seat using the Coherence Analysis Technique

The complicated transfer path relationship between the vibrations of a seat and the noise at the locations of the driver’s ears was estimated from the residual spectrum. For accurate quantitative estimation of the rattle noise at the locations of the driver’s ears, in particular the partial coherence function of the pure inputs to the output was modelled by considering the correlation between the inputs and the input–output. Whenever a coherence analysis was performed with the noise sources in close proximity selected as the inputs and the noise at the locations of the driver’s ears modelled as the output, the partially coherent output spectrum as a quantitative contribution of the inputs to the output was determined. In this study, we applied a coherence analysis technique to identify the sources of the rattle noise of a seat by visualizing the noise sources with an acoustic camera while excitation of the seat was carried out using a hydraulic exciter. We were able to generate the rattle noise from the h...