Advanced materials and technologies for reducing noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) in automobiles

The automotive industry is facing the problem more and more of reducing the weight of vehicles but guaranteeing an equivalent level of comfort in terms of noise, vibration and harshness (NVH). To overcome these contradicting requirements traditional design and material choices must be revisited. Besides advanced passive material systems active or smart concepts are being increasingly considered for the NVH optimization of vehicles. Therefore, this chapter addresses different passive and active measures for NVH control with a focus on smart structures. After a general discussion of the NVH problems in automotive engineering, some principle passive and active measures are described. On this basis passive and active measures are presented in different depth from general aspects over specific concepts to some selected applications.