Initial results in designing an acoustic sound simulator for heavy equipment

Abstract

This paper focuses on the initial development of a vehicle cab sound simulator. This sound simulator has two objectives. First, it can be coupled with a visual simulator and used for operator training. Second, it will be used by designers such that when structural modifications are made to the vehicle, the acoustic response and sound quality in the cab can be predicted. To begin to understand and implement this simulator, transfer functions were measured for several structures progressing from simple to complex and used to generate a simulated signal. Post-processing techniques were used to improve the overall quality of the simulated responses. Similarly, the structures were recreated in a numerical software package, where the transfer functions were calculated numerically and used to generate simulated responses. These signals were compared to the measured response of the system and auralized to determine the effectiveness of the simulation. This paper focuses on the initial development of a vehicle cab sound simulator. This sound simulator has two objectives. First, it can be coupled with a visual simulator and used for operator training. Second, it will be used by designers such that when structural modifications are made to the vehicle, the acoustic response and sound quality in the cab can be predicted. To begin to understand and implement this simulator, transfer functions were measured for several structures progressing from simple to complex and used to generate a simulated signal. Post-processing techniques were used to improve the overall quality of the simulated responses. Similarly, the structures were recreated in a numerical software package, where the transfer functions were calculated numerically and used to generate simulated responses. These signals were compared to the measured response of the system and auralized to determine the effectiveness of the simulation.