Vehicle interior noise and vibration level assessment through the data clustering and hybrid classification model

• The changes of noise and vibration toward engine speed are investigated.
• The trend of correlations between both noise and vibration are studied.
• The factors that having significant trends will be made as inputs in the model.
• The exposure of sound and vibration levels are clustered based on comfort levels using clustering approaches.
• Classifiers are employed to classify the comfort levels instead of human’s subjective evaluation.

Vehicle vibration and acoustical comfort are crucial criteria which may attract customers when purchasing a vehicle. This phenomenon will influence the performance of the drivers in a way that it will distract their vision which can be stressful to both the driver and passengers. Two identified main sources that contribute to the generation of vibration are the transmission of the engine and also the tire and road contact while the car is being driven. As we take into account the factor of tire-road contact, we investigate the correlation that exists between the sound quality from the noise and the changes of the exposed vibration at particular parts in the cabin. Here the trend’s significance levels will be obtained by performing data analysis towards the factor of sound and vibration. Through the results, we have found that the exposed vibration influences the generation of noise that is linked with the level of acoustical comfort in the cabin. At the end of the study, a model of evaluation method on the experienced sound and exposed vibration was successfully proposed using the clustering and classification method.