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Altair has partnered with Ziegler-Instruments to enhance its Squeak and Rattle Director (SnRD), making it the most advanced and comprehensive solution on the market to predict and eradicate squeak and rattle phenomena in vehicles, aircraft and other products sensitive to Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH). The addition of Ziegler-Instruments’ PEM material database gives Altair’s SnRD clients access to the results for over 11,000 individual stick and slip phenomena for different materials pairs. In this video, Patrick Schimmelbauer and Jens Herting of Ziegler Instruments give an overview of the partnership and what it means to companies needing to address squeak and rattle issues.

Due to a long-standing relationship with Altair and its HyperWorks suite of simulation solutions, NEVS approached Altair ProductDesign to see if the interior quality issue could be tackled with simulation. To perform the project, Altair ProductDesign worked on site alongside NEVS Interior Simulation Team to implement Altair’s Squeak and Rattle Director (SnRD).

In this interview, Sebastien Gourg, CAE Methods, Expertise and Support Engineer from PSA Groupe gives us insight into his experience of working with Altair ProductDesign during the implementation and customization of the Squeak and Rattle Director (SnRD). The SnRD is used within PSA vehicle development programs today to help to quickly identify and eradicate unwanted noise from interiors, while cutting down the need for costly physical testing.

Squeak and rattle phenomena are studied in the automotive industry in an attempt to reduce the cabin noise and as a result, give a better ride quality and comfort to occupants. In the case of Scania’s Cabin Development Department, this kind of simulation was not performed historically. The team had to rely on tolerance calculations as well as the choice of materials to reduce the risk of squeak and rattle. To reduce development time and cut down on iterative changes, a desirable solution was identified that enabled a simulation-driven design process during the early stages of the cabin development cycle.