NVH Performance of Lightweight Glazing Materials in Vehicle Design

Fuel economy and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) performance of vehicles are important parameters in a customer’s vehicle purchase decision. Lightweight vehicle designs are necessary to help with fuel economy improvements. In this research work, the weight saving potential and NVH performance of different lightweight glazing materials are investigated to help the lightweight design effort. The lightweight glazing materials included in this study are “Material A”, “Material B”, “Material C” with regular lamination, and “Material C” with acoustic lamination. The results of this research work indicate that the lightweight glazing materials have 30% to 40% weight saving potentials without NVH penalty. These materials have much higher damping properties than conventional tempered glass so they can compensate for the mass reduction influence on vehicle NVH. The tire patch noise reduction, vehicle transparency, and wind noise results of “Vehicle A” tested with different lightweight backlight designs indicate that there is almost no acoustic response difference between the tempered glass and other lightweight alternative backlight designs. Damping loss factor measurements indicate that “Material C” with acoustic PVB (polyvinyl-butyral) has the highest damping loss factor value of 37%. The “Material C” backlight with acoustic PVB is the best among all the lightweight alternatives and brings 29% weight reduction without any NVH degradation. Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) results also indicate that it is possible to eliminate the NVH degradation by using glazing material having high material damping properties or using laminated panels having damping loss values in the range of 6% to 20%. In this paper, we only address the weight reduction and NVH performance of light weight glazing materials but not the costs or any potential assembly procedure changes.