Experimental Study of Installation Effects on Cooling Fan Noise

Sammanfattning: Owing to the ever-changing developments of battery and electric powertrain, vehicle electrification is the trend in the future. Without the presence of a combustion engine, masking effect from it reduces and noises from other components become perceivable. Among all, the cooling fan is one of the major noise sources. The design of cooling fan modules is usually carried out in the early stage before building prototype vehicles. Therefore, it is essential to come up with a method for selecting optimal fan design without performing complete vehicle testing. This is a Master's degree project in collaboration with Volvo Cars, with a focus on cooling fan noise at the charging state of electric vehicles. The main objective of this thesis is to understand the effects of fan installation. Three different setups of acoustic measurement are carried out, namely free-space, wall-mounted, and in-vehicle measurement. Correlations of these measurements are investigated through comparisons of the measurement results and the installation effects are identified through spectrum difference between free-space and in-vehicle measurement. Moreover, the implementation of spectral decomposition method enables the separation of source strength and propagation effect. Analyses of sound pressure levels are studied by looking into tonal and broadband components. In addition, sound power levels are determined by following ISO standards. Finally, a subjective rating session is held to understand the human perception of cooling fan noise.