Measurement of the Hissing-Type Noise and Vibration of the Automotive HVAC System

¹ School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang
² Vehicle Comfort, Testing & Development, Vehicle Development & Engineering, Proton Holdings Berhad, Selangor
³ School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University  

^* Email: zhafran@usm.my

Abstract

Noises such as hissing, humming, air-rush and compressor engagement are the common type of noises that can be induced from the automotive heating and ventilating air conditional (HVAC) system. These noises are basically generated from the effects of vibrational HVAC components. Due to this, the root cause of the noises has to be investigated for any implementation of solution. In this study, the hissing-type of noise is taken into consideration whereby the noise and vibration are measured from various HVAC components such as Evaporator Inlet and Outlet and Thermal Expansion Valve (TXV). Three types of measurement sensors are used in this study which is tri-axial accelerometer for the vibration, tachometer for the engine rpm tracking and microphone for the noise measurement. Two types of operating conditions are taken into consideration, when engine running at 850 rpm (idle) and 850-3000 rpm (tracking) conditions and a constant blower speed is applied for both conditions. the result shows that, the hissing type of noise is determined at the frequency range of 4500-5000 Hz for the both idle and running conditions, whereby the vibration at the Evaporator Inlet is the most significant compared to the Evaporator Core and TVX components. the vibration of the Evaporator Inlet shows the drastic vibration increment between 1000-1500 rpm and getting worse towards 3000 rpm. This result is validated with the 3D colour of noise waterfall analysis, whereby the hissing noise shows the dominant result in the frequency range of 4500-5000 Hz.