Characterisation of the humming-type noise and vibration of the automotive HVAC system

The automotive heating and ventilating air condition (HVAC) system, when vibrating, can generate various types of noises such as humming, hissing, clicking and air-rushes. These noises can be characterized to determine their root causes. In this study, the humming-type noise is taken into consideration whereby the noise and vibration characteristics are measured from various HVAC components such as power steering pump, compressor and air conditional pipe. Four types of measurement sensors were used in this study - tachometer for rpm tracking; accelerometer for the vibration microphone for the noise; and sound camera for the visualization measurement. Two types of operating conditions were taken into consideration - they were "idle" (850 rpm) and "running" (850-1400 rpm) conditions. A constant blower speed was applied for both conditions. The result shows that the humming noises can be determined at the frequency range of 300-350 Hz and 150-250 Hz for both idle and running conditions, respectively. The vibration of the power steering pump shows the worst acceleration of 1.8 m/s² at the frequency range of 150-250 Hz, compared to the compressor and air conditional pipe. This result was validated with the 3D colour order and sound camera analyses, in which the humming noise colour mapping shows dominance in this frequency range.