Development of a Smartphone App for Vehicle Squeak and Rattle Noise - Research Proposal Example

The automotive industry is one of the very business industries and any manufacturer of cars work hard to ensure that they produce the most efficient cars to maintain their customer base. Things such as noises that result from squeak and rattles can be one of the major downfalls of a given firm, and it will only be important that a highly superior strategy on squeaks and rattles be developed (Park, & Choi 2014). The fight against S & R remains one of the most difficult jobs in the automobile industry from the manufacturer’s point of view.

Manufacturer Warranty bills currently on the S & R related issues estimates at 10 percent above the cost of any possible thing that may go wrong. About 50 percent of the S&R results from the instrument panel (IP), seats, and doors with IP ranked as the main offender of all (Weber, & Benhayoun 2012). Manufacturers are considering solving this problem of noise caused by S & R in some ways. The traditional method of “find and fix” that was majorly used to come up with quality improvements has significantly advanced the increase in the cost of production without the validity of durability.

The other corrective measure is known as a “band-aid” depends so much on the accuracy of the operator installation. For several years now, manufacturers have been able to bear the high cost of maintaining four-post stimulators semi-anechoic chambers, large shakers, and a drive-in environment. It is through this that S & R have been significantly reduced but still in a more of find and fix solution that though costly but then slow (Shin, Choi, Cheong, & Kang, 2013). It has created the need for designing a better approach that can find S & R, which is considered to be best solved from the design angle.

With the advanced technology, a device need to be developed that will be able to find S & R in a more accurate and timely way if the problem is to be solved in a more cost-effective manner. With the recent concern that has been developed concerning S&R, it is highly surprising that nearly all the published literature shows the past decade work on S & R with little or nothing to the current state.  

The proprietary nature on how companies understand S&R is an addition to the void seen in the literature. Nonetheless, the level at which people have understood and concerned about S&R, there is a much more need to come up with a more significant strategy that will help in combating S & R more effectively and efficiently, which will show an advancement of the art (Shin, Choi, Cheong, & Kang, 2013). This paper intends to give a comprehensive literature that has been done on the topic and give informed analysis on the cited pieces of literature.

Background and Theory As already mentioned in the introduction part, the squeak is commonly known to result from friction that results from the friction due to the relative motion of the slip-stick phenomenon of the interfacing surface (Daams, 2012). The audible squeak noise is produced when kinetic friction is exceeded by the static friction resulting from elastic deformation of the contact surfaces that store energy, which is then released. The cycle of the slip-stick usually occurs at a frequency that is very low as it is being induced by suspicion inputs and the energy being released result to the surface vibration resulting to audible squeaks in a range that are about 10000 Hz (Weber, & Benhayoun 2012).

In most cases, there are two commonly known squeaks for every given cycle and the amplitude and frequency upon which the squeak is produced is dependent on various factors, which include coefficient of friction, sliding velocity, constituents of materials, and thermal effects and inertia, wear characteristics, temperature and humidity among many others. The rattle is a result of a phenomenon that occurs due to the relative motion of two or more components that experience a short loss of contact.

The sound occurs when an element of that is overly flexible or loose on the excitation that is forced. Compared to squeaks the road is the one that predominately induce the exciting force that prompt the components to inertially vibrate. The moment tolerances are not adequate, and there is an excess vibration or subassemblies being too close, this motion is generated (Park, & Choi 2014). When the motion is generated, the impact comes out as noise in the event that surface areas of the materials close to the impact are wide enough to radiate sound power levels that are audible.

The range of frequency is always between 200 to 2000 Hz, and when the frequency goes beyond that, it stops being a rattle but now buzz. Having defined in detail the definition, understanding of what squeak is, and what rattle is, it is important to understand what causes Squeak and Rattle. Causes of Squeak and Rattle Nearly all the squeak and rattle is associated with structural deficiencies, pair materials that are not compatible or poorly controlled geometric (Elwali, Li, & Lim, 2011).

Squeak and Rattle are caused by the relative motion that goes beyond a given threshold value. It is important to note that relative motions do not always cause S&R, but it is not that S&R is always caused by relative motion. It is through a relative motion that results from structural deficiencies that come from insufficient stiffness, improper modal alignment, or excessive input of forces. From the stiff suspicion come very large forces. Source: Nolan (2012) Effect of suspension stiffness on Instrument Panel response Some of the things that significantly contributes towards S&R issues include attachment stiffness and insufficient global.

It is not possible to neglect static stiffness either on a global or local perspective when considering S&R (Park, & Choi 2014). Most of the frequencies of suspicion input are always below the components resonant frequency. Any form of excitation that happens at this frequency is considered by the value of static stiffness (Thompson 2014). It can, therefore, be seen that it is one of the important contributors that is no longer given much attention during the design cycle. In the event that a given component that has similar ‘apparent' resonant frequency but at the same time has a lower modal stiffness modal stiffness, it is likely, to be excited a very lower frequency than the frequency of its resonant and as such gives a higher response levels (Weber, & Benhayoun 2012).