Case Study: GAC R&D Center achieves near-zero squeak & rattle and improved vehicle quality with Altair Squeak and Rattle Director

GAC R&D Center - Customer Case Study

GAC R&D Center, the research arm of Guangzhou Automobile Group responsible for brands like Trumpchi and AION, faced a critical challenge designing the new compact coupe EMPOW: minimize squeak and rattle (S&R) early in the design stage to meet a “zero S&R” target. Traditional modal and stiffness analyses could not predict S&R because they don’t account for part gaps, relative displacement, and material friction, so GAC turned to Altair’s Squeak and Rattle Director to address these gaps.

Altair implemented its Squeak and Rattle Director CAE workflow—evaluating relative displacement with evaluation lines, loading real excitations, modeling gap-tolerance and friction, and using modal contribution analysis to diagnose and guide optimizations. Using Altair’s solution, GAC identified seven potential S&R risks in detailed design, controlled the risk rate to below 10%, and achieved a best-in-class EMPOW BSR score of 0.21 (lower is better), outperforming multiple benchmarks and advancing GAC’s S&R development capability nationally and internationally.

GAC R&D Center

Chao Ren

Minister of NVH