Institution news
Ahead of the Institution’s seminar on this subject, which takes place in May, we spoke with Sean Biggs, Principal Technical Specialist, Manual Transmissions and Inline Automatic Transmissions, Jaguar Land Rover, to understand the challenges facing engineers in this specialist area.
Q: Could you briefly explain your role and involvement in noise, vibration and harshness engineering?
Sean Biggs (SB): I’m a Technical Specialist in the application of multi-body system (MBS) simulation; I’m lucky enough to work with a talented group of engineers applying the methods to understand our attribute performance. We work cross attribute with NVH being a significant proportion of the work we do.
Q: In your experience, what is the number one challenge facing engineers specialising in NVH?
SB: Time. A significant chunk of the system performance is inherently connected to architecture decisions taken. So we are constantly trying to understand the system as early as possible, so that should we have a cross attribute conflict, we still have time to change the system. If we get it wrong it invariably means a late change which is both costly and stressful
Q: What is the most exciting development in this field at the moment, either within your company or in the industry in general?
SB: Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) being integrated into the delivery teams, i.e. not as part of a separate team!
Q: What do you see for the future NVH measurement, testing and engineering over the next 5 – 10 years?
SB: I’m looking forward to increased TEST/CAE integration. effective CAE leading, not replacing, the development process will require more detailed testing to develop targets and better understand system performance.
Q: What are you most looking forward to by attending and presenting at Noise, Vibration and Harshness 2018?
SB: How other engineers have addressed the above challenges!
Noise, Vibration and Harshess will address the challenges in design, measurement and analysis of noise, vibration and harshness across complex systems. With case studies from automotive, military, aerospace, power generation and marine contexts, learn how engineers are effectively measuring and analysing their complex systems from a NVH perspective.
The Early Bird discount ends 30 March, to view the full programme and to book your place, Noise, Vibration and Harshess website.