Identification and Evaluation of Passthroughs That Affect the Acoustic Performance of a Dash System

This paper discusses a systematic process that was developed to evaluate the acoustic performance of a production electric vehicle dash system. The production dash panel was tested under different configurations to understand the importance of passthroughs in the acoustics of the dash system. Results show that often the performance of the passthroughs strongly affects the overall performance of the dash system and this may become the limiting factor to increase the system STL. The dash with passthroughs was then extensively tested to understand the acoustic strength of different passthroughs and to understand how these passthroughs affect the overall performance of the dash system. Subsequently a test procedure based on flat panel tests was developed so the OEM can develop target values and the suppliers can provide test results of their passthroughs that are meaningful and useful to the OEM to help build an acoustically competitive vehicle.