Engine Mount Transfer Path Sensitivities in Vehicle Structures: A Frequency-Domain TPA Approach

Transfer path analysis (TPA) is a key technique in the evaluation of the acoustical behavior of technical structures. The presented paper proposes an extension to the component-based transfer path analysis through the modification of the transfer behavior of passive side's elements, and the subsequent calculation of sensitivities on the overall system response. The proposed approach is based on the definition of a frequency-dependent target function wich is related to the overall system response. Frequency-based Substructuring is used to modify the passive side and to calculate the sensitivities of chosen transfer paths of the receiving structure. The method is demonstrated on a vehicle structure where single engine mount is chosen as example for demonstrating the calculation of transfer path sensitivities. Sound pressure in the passenger cabin is used as overall system response. Single components of the TPA model, including in-situ source characterization and determination of admittance matrices, are acquired experimentally. The paper ends up with a brief discussion of results, the classification of results in the context of the overall system behavior and, finally, different examples for application of the proposed method are given.