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SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 2001-01-1441

Transfer Path Analysis of Structure-Borne Shock

Absorber Noise in a Passenger Car
Joon-Ho Lee, Kyoung Oh and Youn-Sik Park
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Dae-Hun Gwon and Sang-Kyu Park

Korea Automotive Systems Co.

Reprinted From: Proceedings of the 2001 Noise and Vibration Conference

(NOISE2001CD)

Noise and Vibration Conference & Exposition

Traverse City, Michigan
April 30 - May 3, 2001

400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760
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Transfer Path Analysis of Structure-Borne Shock Absorber
Noise in a Passenger Car
Copyright © 2001 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a method to separate structure-
borne noise, which comes from the shock absorber, from
the measured vehicle interior sound pressure. The transfer
path analysis (TPA) was used. Shock absorber was
considered as an input source while the sound pressure at
the driver seat as its output. It was found that the sound
pressure at the driver seat position and accelerations at
the shock absorber mounting points are strongly
correlated. Using one-third octave band analysis, the
contribution of shock absorber structure-borne noise to the
driver seat sound pressure was analyzed. Also the
relationship between the measured acceleration and
sound pressure was studied.
1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the shock absorber noise, which has not been
counted as a major noise source before, gets more
attention for designing quieter car due to the extensive
efforts for reducing engine, transmission and
aerodynamics noise.
It is known that shock absorber often makes a structure-
borne noise called rattling noise. The noise is generated
when the shock absorber damping force is distorted.
Usually, shock absorbers are bench-tested for screening
all bad ones out before equipping on a vehicle. But many
noise problems in vehicles are attributed to shock
absorbers.
This paper describes a method to find the noise caused by
the shock absorber from the measured vehicle interior
sound pressure. The transfer path analysis (TPA) was
used.
Shock absorber was considered as an input source, which
is usually nonlinear, while the sound pressure at the driver
seat as an output. The transfer function between the input
and output points were experimentally measured to get an
experimental source-path-receiver model. Both the
2001-01-1441
Joon-Ho Lee, Kyoung Oh and Youn-Sik Park
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Dae-Hun Gwon and Sang-Kyu Park
Korea Automotive Systems CO.
accelerations at the vehicle shock absorber mounting
points and the sound pressure at the driver seat were
measured when the rear-right wheel of a test vehicle was
excited using a hydraulic exciter as shown in Figure 1.
Seven normal and ten presumably abnormal shock
absorbers were tested to see the differences in shock
absorber structure-borne noise. Using one-third octave
band analysis, the contribution of shock absorber to the
acceleration and sound pressure was analyzed. In this
study, we attempted to obtain an experimental procedure
for evaluating the rattling noise generated in the shock
absorbers.
2. CHARACTERISTICS OF SHOCK ABSORBER
STRUCTURE-BORNE NOISE
Shock absorber structure-borne noise can be often heard
when a vehicle is driven with low speed (10~40Km/h) on a
rather rough road surface. Mostly its frequency is low
(<2000Hz). Also, it occurs easily while shock absorber is
being operated in the relatively low temperature. But it is
difficult to distinguish shock absorber noise from others
such as road noise, tire noise and suspension component
noise [1,2,3].
Shock absorber structure-borne noise arises from two
major sources: (1) vibration of valve assemblies due to oil
flow and (2) resonance of cylinder and piston rod
assemblies synchronous with vibrating frequencies of tire.
Eventually, these distort the shock absorber damping force,
which results in the occurrence of shock absorber
structure-borne noise.
3. TRANSFER PATH ANALYSIS
Transfer Path Analysis (TPA) is a test-based procedure
and it is a tool to assess the flow of vibro-acoustic energy
from excitation source(s), through a set of known
structure- and air-borne transfer paths, to given receiver
location(s) [4,5]. For example, the energy from a source in
a vehicle is transmitted into the car cavity through a
number of different routes which can be structure-borne
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transfer paths of, for instance, the engine mounting, the
exhaust system connection points, the drive shafts and the
wheel suspension or can be air-borne transfer paths of the
intake and exhaust system.
From the viewpoint of energy transfer, vehicle interior
sound pressure during operational conditions can be
expressed as a superposition of partial contributions of
individual structure-borne and air-borne transfer paths.
N M
P = ∑ (Pstructure )i + ∑ (Pair ) j
i =1 j =1
N M
= ∑ f i (H structure )i + ∑ q j (H air ) j
i =1 j =1
If the contributions of air-borne transfer paths can be
ignored relatively to those of structure-borne transfer paths,
vehicle interior sound pressure can be expressed using
target transfer functions and operational forces.
N N
P
P = ∑ f i (H structure )i =∑ f i  
i =1 i =1  F i
Target transfer function can be measured using impact
hammer as well as shaker excitation or it also can be
measured using acoustical reciprocity [1].
Operational forces can be measured directly using force
transducers or indirectly using (1) complex dynamic
stiffness of mounts or (2) inversion of a measured
accelerance FRF matrix when force transducers can not
be placed in the measurement setup and in cases of
distributed forces. In case of vehicle driving test, indirect
force estimation method is generally used to measure
operational forces.
The details of TPA can be found in ref. [4,5].
4. VEHICLE TEST USING TPA OF SHOCK
ABSORBER STRUCTURE-BORNE NOISE
A manual transmission passenger vehicle equipped with
dual-tube gas type shock absorbers was investigated for
shock absorber structure-borne noise. In this paper, the
scope of research was confined to structure-borne noise.
The rear-right shock absorber was set as a noise source.
Figure 1 shows the experimental apparatus for this vehicle
test.
4.1. SOURCE-PATH-RECEIVER MODEL
In this shock absorber noise analysis, the rear-right shock
absorber was considered as a noise source, shock
absorber strut mount as the structure-borne transfer path
and the front driver’s ear position as the receiver location.
Specifically, the vertical directions (defined as +Z direction)
on the two points of the vehicle body where the shock
absorber strut mount is connected to the vehicle body via
bolts were selected as the transfer paths since the
operational forces acting through the shock absorber are
transmitted into the vehicle body through these two points
mostly in the Z direction [6].
It was necessary to block other noise sources except the
shock absorber noise since shock absorber was
considered not as a transmission path but as a noise
source in this paper. All the possible soundproofing
treatments were made in the test vehicle.
It was assumed that even though a normal shock absorber
(1) was replaced with an abnormal shock absorber, the noise
contributions from the other suspension components, for
instance, suspension spring would not be changed much.
The only things to be changed in these vehicle tests are
shock absorbers.
4.2. MEASUREMENTS OF FRF
In this vehicle test, indirect operational force estimation
method, which inverses the measured accelerance FRF
matrix was used because it is very difficult to measure the
(2) force directly and furthermore, complex dynamic stiffness
data were not available.
RR:01:+Z (Rear-Right position #1 in +Z direction) and
RR:02:+Z (Rear-Right position #2 in +Z direction) were
selected as the transfer paths. The total contribution of the
two transfer paths to the measured sound pressure can be
calculated by root mean square summation of the
estimated sound pressure of each transfer path.
In order to avoid the ill-conditioning problem during the
FRF matrix inversion, FRFs were measured from the extra
two more positions (RR:03:+Z and RR:04:+Z) at the
vehicle body side near the shock absorber strut mount
position. Thus 4x2 size accelerance matrix was
constructed using impact hammer test.
Acoustic transfer functions were also measured using
impact hammer test.
All the FRF measurements were performed on the LMS
CADA-X 3.5.B and SCADAS II front end kernel. Using
measured FRFs, TPA model was constructed with LMS
CADA-X TPA module.
4.3. EXCITATION OF TEST VEHICLE
Vehicle interior noise regeneration via vehicle driving test
can be easily affected by the various factors such as road
surface, vehicle speed. So it is difficult to regenerate
nearly the same level of the noise in each vehicle driving
test.
Thus, in this work, MCSCON (Motor Car Noise Check
System) was used to test the vehicle noise. MCSCON is
composed of a hydraulic pump, hydraulic exciter and
remote control box. The tire noise can be totally removed
from the noise measurement by using the MCSCON.
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One wheel of the test vehicle is placed on the hydraulic
exciter and an exciting signal is applied to the vehicle by
hydraulic pressure controller. The test vehicle is excited in
the vertical direction.
The used hydraulic exciter has
• Maximum exciting force: 1000Kgf
• Exciting displacement band: ± 1 ~ 25mm
• Exciting frequency band: 0.1 ~ 70Hz
Exciting displacement and frequency are related each
other by the performance curve of the hydraulic pump.
Exciting motion can be chosen from sinusoidal, triangular
and rectangular signal with duty ratio.
In this vehicle test, 15Hz, 2mm sinusoidal exciting signal
was used which is generally selected for the high
frequency transmission shock absorber bench-test.
4.4. MEASUREMENTS OF OPERATIONAL DATA
Both the accelerations at the shock absorber strut
mounting points and the sound pressure at the driver’s
seat position were measured when the rear-right wheel of
the test vehicle was excited using a hydraulic exciter.
Seven normal and ten presumably abnormal shock
absorbers were tested to see the differences in shock
absorber structure-borne noise. These measured
operational data were used to perform TPA with the
constructed TPA model.
5. ONE-THIRD OCTAVE BAND ANALYSIS
One-third octave band analysis was performed with the
measured sound pressure, accelerations and TPA model.
The estimated sound pressure from TPA was compared
with the measured sound pressure.
Figures 2 and 3 show the mean value and its distribution
of the measured sound pressure level (SPL) at the driver
seat and its estimated SPL from TPA for the case of
equipping seven normal shock absorbers. The
contributions of the structure-borne noise to each SPL at
16, 31.5Hz frequency bands were neglected because
these measurements are mainly due to exciting frequency.
It was found that the contribution of the structure-borne
noise is apparent at the frequency range of 50~200Hz on
the whole. Above 200Hz frequency band, TPA gives lower
estimation of SPL than the measured value, which means
that the contribution of the structure-borne noise is not so
apparent in the high frequency range.
Figure 4 shows the mean value and its distribution of the
average of measured accelerations at the transfer paths
(RR:01:+Z, RR:02:+Z) for the case of equipping normal
shock absorbers.
Figure 5 shows the ratio between the measured SPL and
the estimated SPL using each mean value when normal
shock absorbers were equipped. It was found that the ratio
is nearly constant at the value in the range of 50Hz
frequency band above, which means the difference
between the measured SPL and estimated SPL is very
small.
Figure 6 shows the ratio between the estimated SPL and
the averaged acceleration at the transfer paths using each
mean value when normal shock absorbers were equipped.
It was also found that this figure shows a strong correlation
between the estimated SPL and its acceleration at the
transfer path in the range of 50Hz frequency band above.
Based on the analysis of normal shock absorbers, the
quantitative noise evaluations of ten presumably abnormal
shock absorbers were performed one after another. T-
distribution statistical analysis (one-sided and right limit
with 95% confidence level at each one-third octave band
center frequency) was used in calculating the upper bound
values of normal shock absorbers because only seven
samples were available [7].
Figure 7 shows the SPL and the acceleration differences
between the cases of equipping normal and abnormal
shock absorbers.
For the case of equipping abnormal shock absorbers, both
of the estimated SPL and its acceleration at the transfer
path show higher values compared to the case of normal
shock absorbers at the frequency range of 50~400Hz. This
phenomenon is especially evident in the 160Hz frequency
band.
Tables 1 and 2 summarize the measured and estimated
SPL and acceleration from the vehicle equipped with all
ten abnormal shock absorbers. Among the cases, the
abnormal #9 shock absorber shows the advantage of
using TPA clearly in structure-borne noise analysis. The
measured SPL showed a 5dBA higher value than the
upper bound value of the case of equipping normal shock
absorbers at 250Hz frequency band. But both of the
estimated SPL and its acceleration did not show any
apparent difference at the same frequency band. From this
result, it can be said that the quantitative evaluation of the
claimed shock absorber using only the measured SPL can
be misleading.
From the viewpoint of structure-borne noise, it was found
that the frequency band around 50~400Hz is very sensitive
to the quality of shock absorbers.
6. CONCLUSION
Using TPA and one-third octave band analysis, strong
correlation between the estimated SPL using TPA and the
measured acceleration is observed. In case of the test
vehicle, the frequencies where shock absorber structure-
borne noise affects most sensitively on the vehicle interior
sound pressure are around 50~400Hz. From this study, it
is concluded that the shock absorber quality related to its
structure-borne noise can be tested by simultaneously
using the estimated SPL and the measured accelerations
at the transfer paths.
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Also the contribution of the shock absorber structure-borne P

noise to the measured sound pressure is quantified using
the estimated SPL. Vehicles with noise problem related to
shock absorbers can be used to validate this experimental
procedure.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  : Frequency response function between the target
 F i
and the force applied at transfer path i
f i (ω ) : Operational force at transfer path i

The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science

and Technology, Korea, for the financial support by a grant
from the Critical Technology 21 Project and also would like
to thank Prof. Dae-Won Kim of Changhung College in
Korea for the technical consultation.

REFERENCES

1. Joris Van Haver, “Structure-Borne Shock Absorber

Noise: Non-Linear Noise Source Characterization in a
Laboratory Environment”, SAE Paper No. 951255,
1995
2. Jonh G. Cherng, Tim Akin, “Noise Measurements
and Characterization of Automotive Dampers”, SAE
Paper No. 931271, 1993
3. Etsuro Nakada, Toshihiro Mizobuchi, Satoshi
Komatsu, “ Analysis of Shock Absorber Rattling Noise
1”, KAYABA Co. Technical Report, No. 15, 1997
4. LMS International, “Transfer Path Analysis: The
Qualification and Quantification of Vibro-Acoustic
Transfer Paths”, 1997
5. LMS International, “LMS CADA-X Transfer Path
Analysis Tutorial”, 1997
6. Tae-Won Kang, Sang-Gyu Lim, “Tools to
Understand Interior Noise due to Road Excitation in
Cars”, Journal of KSNVE, Vol. 8, No. 6, pp.
1158~1165, 1998
7. Thomas G. Beckwith, Roy D. Marangoni and John
H. Lienhard V., Mechanical Measurements, Fifth
Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993

CONTACT

Joon-Ho Lee, Kyoung Oh and Prof. Youn-Sik Park can be

reached through the Department of Mechanical
Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology, Taejon, Republic of Korea at 82-42-869-3060

Or email glxtmw@cais.kaist.ac.kr, fom75@dreamwiz.com

and yspark@mail.kaist.ac.kr.

DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS

TPA: Transfer Path Analysis

SPL: Sound Pressure Level

P(ω ) : Target function as function of frequency (sound

pressure)
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Test Shock Absorber Accelero meters Test Vehicle Microphone

140

120

100

80

dB
Hydraulic Exciter AMP
60
Direction Control Va lve

Hydraulic Pu mp 40

Remote Control Bo x SCADAS II Front End

Check Va lve
20

0
Relief Valve
LMS CA DA-X 50 80 125 200 315 500 800
1/3 octave band center frequency
Oil Tan k

Figure 1 Experimental setup Figure 4 Mean and distribution of measured acceleration

at the transfer path for the case of normal shock absorbers

80 3
70
Measured SPL / Estimated SPL
60
2
50
40
30
1
20
dBA

10
0 0
-10 50 80 125 200 315 500 800
-20
-1
-30 1/3 octave band center frequency 50 80 125 200 315 500 800 --
-40 1/3 octave ban d center frequency

Figure 2 Mean and distribution of measured SPL for the Figure 5 The ratio between measured and estimated SPL
case of normal shock absorbers for the case of normal shock absorbers

80 0.6

70 0.4
60
0.2
50
Estimated SPL / Acceleration

40 0.0

30 -0.2
20
dBA

-0.4
10
0 -0.6

-10 50 80 125 200 315 500 800 -0.8

-20
-1.0
-30
1/3 octave band center frequency 50 80 125 200 315 500 800
-40 1/3 octave band center frequency

Figure 3 Mean and distribution of estimated SPL using Figure 6 The ratio between estimated SPL and
TPA for the case of normal shock absorbers acceleration at the transfer path for the case of normal
shock absorbers
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a b n o r m a l S /A a b n o r m a l S /A
9 5 % c o n fi d e n c e l i m it( n o r m a l S /A ) 9 5 % c o n fid e n c e l im it(n o rm a l S / A )
1 40
80
70 1 20
60
50 1 00
40
80
dBA

30

dB
20 60
10
0 40
-10 50 80 1 25 2 00 3 15 5 00 8 00
20
-20
-30 0
50 80 1 25 2 00 3 15 5 00 8 00
(a ) (c )

14
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
10
10
9 9
8 8
dB A

7 7

dB
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
50 80 1 25 2 00 3 15 5 00 8 00 50 80 1 25 2 00 3 15 5 00 8 00

(b ) (d )

Figure 7 The difference in the SPL and acceleration between the cases of normal and abnormal shock absorbers

(a) SPL from TPA (b) Difference in the SPL between vehicles with normal and abnormal shock absorbers
(c) Acceleration (d) Difference in the acceleration between vehicles with normal and abnormal shock absorbers

Table 1 Acceleration measured from ten noisy abnormal shock absorbers (dB)

Center freq.
(Hz) 50 63 80 100 125 160 200 250 315 400

Normal shock
absorbers (95% 107.3 114.5 107.7 109.0 109.4 108.9 107.2 99.9 100.7 103.7
confidence limit)

#1 106.7 115.8 103.1 108.3 107.0 108.3 110.4 99.9 94.7 100.9

#2 111.4 115.7 109.6 112.7 112.0 112.9 111.3 100.6 100.4 99.0

#3 114.8 112.4 104.5 112.1 109.8 109.2 109.5 102.1 95.9 97.7

#4 110.2 113.7 108.7 108.6 106.0 103.1 100.9 100.8 101.6 101.9
Noisy
#5 111.6 114.1 109.5 108.8 102.7 100.2 97.2 88.9 89.4 88.7
abnormal
shock
absorber #6 110.9 114.4 107.9 110.4 102.2 105.0 103.2 98.0 92.5 95.3

#7 110.0 114.7 107.0 110.2 104.1 103.6 104.2 94.3 96.9 100.5

#8 112.7 114.3 111.9 107.3 104.6 105.7 107.1 99.0 91.1 92.3

#9 88.5 107.0 99.3 105.0 104.4 105.1 103.2 99.2 93.8 91.5

# 10 113.2 111.8 113.9 113.7 110.7 109.9 109.7 102.5 101.5 104.2
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Table 2 Measured (M) and Estimated (E) SPL using TPA from ten noisy abnormal shock absorbers (dBA)

Center Frequency
(Hz) 50 63 80 100 125 160 200 250 315 400

Normal shock M 60.4 61.4 54.2 61.9 64.5 61.3 53.7 53.0 51.9 54.7
absorber (95%
confidence limit) E 62.3 65.3 50.1 59.7 60.6 64.7 56.7 52.5 44.8 47.5

M 56.8 66.1 51.0 63.5 61.9 62.4 57.5 53.1 52.6 54.1
#1
E 60.9 67.8 47.0 59.6 60.7 63.8 58.8 49.4 38.5 46.1

M 61.5 64.1 56.0 63.4 62.3 68.6 55.7 53.3 54.2 52.4
#2
E 63.8 66.6 52.1 63.2 61.8 71.9 59.5 47.2 47.0 43.9

M 57.7 61.1 36.2 64.7 59.6 58.9 57.3 57.9 50.0 49.7
#3
E 63.8 61.7 39.6 62.4 60.8 62.9 64.4 50.4 42.2 44.8

M 62.3 62.1 56.2 61.3 59.8 59.5 53.5 53.9 52.0 55.6
#4
E 63.7 64.7 45.5 59.4 53.1 54.0 57.7 50.7 50.8 47.0

M 62.4 61.8 58.2 63.0 56.9 52.5 48.2 44.4 49.0 45.3
#5
Noisy E 66.7 66.3 52.6 62.3 53.3 53.4 52.0 38.8 37.3 34.9
abnormal
shock
absorber M 63.1 62.2 56.7 65.3 55.2 59.3 55.8 50.3 50.9 51.3
#6
E 65.8 67.6 51.0 64.0 51.1 60.9 62.0 51.8 38.1 40.6

M 60.1 61.3 54.5 62.5 57.7 57.3 51.5 56.5 48.5 54.4
#7
E 65.0 67.3 45.5 60.3 51.8 58.3 53.5 47.9 40.6 43.7

M 62.3 66.5 69.1 67.3 68.9 68.9 66.6 63.7 61.8 61.5
#8
E 64.8 65.3 52.1 57.3 58.4 61.4 60.9 53.0 40.1 38.5

M 45.8 58.4 54.8 62.2 60.7 56.2 54.6 58.4 49.7 47.3
#9
E 37.6 58.8 41.4 57.4 55.6 61.0 57.7 50.3 40.8 38.5

M 62.8 48.1 62.2 61.8 64.2 65.4 57.8 54.6 53.0 59.0
# 10
E 67.6 52.1 54.8 61.1 59.1 66.4 62.5 50.6 48.7 50.2