With the increasing expectation of customer for a quiet and comfortable ride, automobile manufacturers need to continuously work upon to improve automobile powertrain NVH. Today’s customer has become so aware of vehicle related noises that in-tank fuel pump noise is no exception to the checklist of evaluating cabin NVH.
In-tank fuel pump, that is responsible for delivering the fuel from fuel storage tank to delivery rail, uses an electric driven motor. The rotating parts such as rotor, etc. produce vibrations that may traverse to tank body & subsequently vehicle body. Since noise is essentially an audible vibration at its root, these structure borne vibrations may be perceived as noise inside passenger cabin. Additionally, the noise may also be produced by fuel flow pulsations if transferred through piping to vehicle body.
This paper focuses on various approaches to reduce the fuel pump generated noise heard inside passenger cabin. Some of the approaches used for the aforementioned are: dampening or isolating source vibrations, changing modal/frequency response behavior, reducing/eliminating the resonance factor in the traversed medium, etc. These approaches have been formulized based on various iterations conducted at fuel pump level, fuel tank level and piping layout. The results were gauged by subjective feeling as well as objective data measurement. Furthermore, the paper also touches upon the use of CAE tools to identify resonating points.