The excitation force of a powertrain is one of major sources for the interior noise of a vehicle. This paper presents a novel approach to predict the interior noise caused by the vibration of the powertrain by using the hybrid TPA (transfer path analysis) method. Although the traditional transfer path analysis (TPA) is useful for the identification of powertrain noise sources, it is difficult to modify the structure of a powertrain by using the experimental method for the reduction of vibration and noise. In order to solve this problem, the vibration of the powertrain in a vehicle is numerically analyzed by using the finite element method (FEM). The vibration of the other parts in a vehicle is investigated by using the experimental method based on vibrato-acoustic transfer function (VATF) analysis. These two methods are combined for the prediction of interior noise caused by a powertrain. Throughout this research, two papers are presented. This paper presents a simulation of the excitation force of the powertrain exciting the vehicle body based on numerical simulation. The other paper presents a prediction of interior noise based on the hybrid TPA, which uses the VATF of the car body and the excitation force predicted in this paper.
