Fully trimmed vehicle models with poroelastic finite element method, modelling technics

The automotive industry is currently expressing a strong need to understand more into details the influence of the trim parts on the acoustic response in the vehicle in the case of structureborne or airborne excitations. The classical FEM (Finite Element Method) is using local masses or masses smeared over surfaces to model the trims. This method does not give a lot of opportunity to understand how the trims are working in the vehicle. Formulations were developed during the last decades to model the poro-elastic materials with finite elements methods (PEM). The description of the trims as PEM meshes allows a deeper understanding of the behaviour of the porous and “plastic” trim parts contained in the vehicle.