Going global: Ford Australia revs up in-vehicle NVH testing with LMS Test.Xpress

Ford Motor Company – the world’s third largest automaker – stands at a pivotal crossroad. In a strategic move to bolster the company’s current market position, executives have embarked on a global business initiative to speed up new product introductions 30 to 50 percent. “In 2009, the pace of new product introductions will accelerate even further,” explains Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally in the 2006 annual report. “Our efforts will be enhanced by leveraging our worldwide resources.”

Indeed, while the automaker’s unit volumes have declined in North America, international sales are up. Leading the pack with a nearly 17% increase in 2006 is the Asia Pacific region, where Ford Australia figures prominently in its enhanced role as an engineering and design center of excellence for the critical area.

Ford cars have been sold in Australia for over 100 years, while the Ford Motor Company of Australia began manufacturing locally in 1925. Ford Australia has been the overall market leader in 12 of the last 25 years. Their Ford Territory cross-over SUV has been the most popular four-wheel-drive in Australia since its release in 2004, and the Ford Falcon is one of only two sedans wholly designed and built locally in Australia.

As part of the automaker’s globalization initiative, Ford Australia will use the success of the Falcon and Territory as a foundation in efficiently developing a new light commercial vehicle targeted at more than 80 countries worldwide. With the first derivative most likely to be a pickup truck, the vehicle architecture will be developed with a variety of configurations and body styles expected to ultimately result in more than 400,000 sales annually.

“Our local success is allowing us to capitalize on our strategic location within the increasingly important Asia Pacific region,” says Ford Australia President Tom Gorman.  “Our new globally-oriented direction will allow us to build upon the capabilities and intellectual excellence we have here in Australia.  The Ford Australia team will deliver an exciting new engineering and design program for numerous markets around the world, while also investigating further export opportunities for both the Territory and Falcon.”

Engineering efficiency has been an area of continuous improvement at Ford Australia over the years in the development for the Falcon and Territory models. Now the expansion of their product portfolio together with the corporate goal of shortening vehicle launch cycles is prompting investigation of ways to further accelerate processes across the organization. One area where managers are focusing is in-vehicle tests processes where NVH levels are measured on instrumented prototypes.

“Performed primarily near the end of development, verification tests are used to check that noise and vibration levels do not exceed target limits set for the vehicle design, and to help identify and correct problems if targets are not met,” explains Ford Australia NVH Manager Michael Stellamanns. “Up-front testing is also performed increasingly for calibrating, updating and correlating CAE models used to refine designs early in the development, thus reducing the level of more time-consuming extensive late-stage prototype testing. Fast test cycle turnaround times for design verification as well as CAE calibration are essential for vehicle models to be launched on schedule.”

After an evaluation of competitive systems, Ford Australia selected LMS Test.Xpress for in-vehicle NVH testing based on several compelling criteria. The LMS SCADAS Mobile data acquisition front-end of the system is a compact, lightweight laptop-size unit that is easily transported and readily mounts on the vehicle front seat or dashboard. Templates store previous test set-up parameters which engineers can easily re-use instead of preparing each set-up from scratch. Parameters that need to be changed for different sensors or frequencies, for example, can be readily changed on the systems interactive interface. All menus are displayed on a single screen, with no confusing sub-menus or different windows to flip through.

“Using the convenient intuitive features, we can easily set up the LMS Test.Xpress in a few minutes instead of hours,” says Development Engineer Andrew Liew. “In addition, the system’s 16 channels – double what we had previously – allow us to run multiple tests at the same time with simultaneous inputs from microphones, accelerometers, temperature and pressure sensors mounted all over the vehicle. With this channel count, we can do all the metrics in one go using a single box and can easily add more channels if needed for simultaneous measurements of road noise, engine vibration, driveshaft torsional vibration and interior noise boom, for example.”

LMS Test.Xpress also has built-in analysis capabilities for performing FFT, order and octave analysis with sound-level meter functionalities in a single measurement run. Further, the system’s fast processing capabilities provide results immediately in real time as the test is being run. 

“Real-time monitoring is a major advantage, allowing us to check the repeatability and validity of the test as it’s being run,” says Liew. “If we are measuring third-order engine vibration, for example, we can look at that metric and immediately see that the data is consistent. When we see anomalous readings, we can immediately look at the connections, check sensor outputs and run that part of the test over. Also, if we spot any unusual readings that might indicate a design problem, we can run further tests on the spot to study the problem and recommend design modifications.”

“Real-time capabilities save us valuable time in helping meet our accelerated development schedules and product launch dates, allowing our engineers to complete set up tests, take measurements and view results in a matter of hours instead of days,” notes Stellamanns. “More broadly, seeing results immediately as the test is being run gives our engineers greater insight into vehicle NVH performance so they can make better informed recommendations on optimizing vehicle design.”

He also notes that a strategic advantage of LMS Test.Xpress is that output data is entirely compatible with other LMS systems already in place at Ford Australia such as the LMS Test.Lab engineering platform for advanced analysis in calculating resonant frequencies or displaying mode shapes, for example. Also, measurements from LMS Test.Xpress can be imported directly into the LMS Virtual.Lab simulation software and combined with analysis data for creating hybrid models. Road test data goes into vehicle NVH models for load and contribution analysis, for example. Also, noise and vibration measurements are used to correlate acoustics and structural noise radiation models.

“This technology is important for us to integrate test and CAE into unified models for hybrid simulation,” says Stellamanns. “Models mapped to the real world with actual measurement data can be used with greater confidence, so our engineers can readily identify vibration sources and actually predict the impact of design modifications for solving the problem. Capabilities such as this enable us not just to do the job faster but to improve the NVH performance of vehicles.”