Optimization layout of damping material using vibration energy-based finite element analysis method

•A new method which was used in the optimization procedure included the energy analysis method and NLOPT method.•The number of the patches in the energy post-processing method was significantly lower than the number of DOFs in traditional FE method.•Simulation analysis and an experimental test were performed with one box model to verify the optimization procedure mentioned.•The new method was presented to calculate the vehicle sound package. It is essential to optimize the position and coverage of damping material to mitigate the vibration and noise in vehicles. Modal strain energy and genetic algorithms are traditionally used for damping material optimization, but these methods do not consider a specific loading position and loading case. Therefore, the optimization results do not include an actual working load case. This paper introduced an optimization method, including two steps for the damping material position and weight optimization. A specific and practical loading case was adopted. First, the damping position and its coverage area were calculated and optimized using the energy post-processing method. Second, the damping thickness and weight were treated as the optimization objective based on damping position and coverage optimization results, after which the structure-damping-cavity vibro-acoustic model was used for the response calculation. Two verification models, a box model, and an actual vehicle model were included in this paper to verify the efficacy of the technique. The optimization method proposed in this paper could visibly reduce the weight of the damping material while the noise level remained as initially planned. This method can easily be applied during the actual design process of the vehicle sound package, while the simulation results can be used as a reference in the optimization of the damping material.