Study of Installation Effects on Automotive Cooling Fan Noise

• Vehicle electrification is one of the biggest trends in the automotive industry. Without the presence of combustion engine, which is the main noise source on conventional vehicles, noise from other components becomes more perceivable; among these components, the cooling fan is one of the major noise sources, especially during battery charging. The design of cooling fan modules is usually carried out in the early stage before building prototype vehicles. Therefore, understanding the installation effects of the cooling fan on the radiated sound is essential to secure good customer satisfaction. In this study, three different measurement setups of cooling fans are carried out: free field, wall mounted, and in-vehicle measurement. Four cooling fan prototypes with different fan blade designs are used in each measurement. Correlations of these measurements are investigated through comparisons of the measurement results. The installation effects are identified through spectrum difference between free field and in-vehicle measurement. A spectral decomposition method is implemented to enable the separation of source strength and propagation effect in the results. One variable is introduced to represent the installation effects of vehicles tested in the present study. 

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Strömningsmekanik och akustik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Cooling

Customer satisfaction

Vehicles

Automotives

Combustion engines

Cooling fans

Fan noise

Free fields

In-vehicle measurements

Installation effects

Noise source

Vehicle electrifications

Vehicle noise

Automotive industry

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)