Abstract
Closures and certain vehicle components (doors, hood, tailgate, mirrors, etc)
are attached to the vehicle body by means of articulated elements that allow a high level of
mobility. This may cause the poor vibration performance of the part when exposed to
oscillating loads such as the ones produced by the engine, the road irregularities and the
aerodynamic forces. The poor vibration performance of a closure, for example, affects
comfort perception and can cause squeak and rattle or lead to a high level of wind noise inside
the vehicle. The problems associated with small displacements of these parts during driving
conditions can be analysed using signal processing in both the time and the frequency
domain. Also, from a practical point of view, the investigation of the relative movement of
these elements with respect to the body shows a great potential for problem solving.
This paper presents case-studies based on the application of innovative experimental methods
for analysing the in-service movement of closures and other vehicle components using time
and frequency domain signal processing. These methods of analysis define the absolute and
relative dynamic behaviour of these parts with respect to the vehicle body. It is shown that
this approach is very powerful in defining countermeasures to control their in-service
displacements.
Keywords: Signal processing, time and frequency domain analysis, running modes