Manager of Global Powertrain NVH & Systems CAE Dept., Ford Motor Company
Mr. Felice is Manager of the Global Powertrain NVH CAE engineering Dept. at Ford Motor Company. He heads a large team of CAE engineers located in North America, Europe, Australia and South America. Mr. Felice is responsible for all the analytical support of powertrain development programs required to deliver best NVH refinement with respect to Smoothness, Quietness and Sound Quality.
As a global leader, Mr. Felice is also responsible for establishing common analytical methods and processes
across all Ford global engineering organizations. Mr. Felice has been employed with Ford Motor Company for 38 years. During this time he's held a number of positions specializing in Design Manufacturing of engines as well analysis of powertrain components, sub-systems, and full powertrain system.
Mr. Felice holds degrees in Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey) and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Speeches
Today’s customer expectations for automotive products are very demanding across all global regions. Customers expect high quality, top safety, best fuel economy with uncompromised performance, as well as high levels of refinement in terms of smooth drivability and quietness. Delivering these requirements are top objectives for Ford Motor Company and these are performed using a combination of virtual simulation technologies as well as specialized testing during the vehicle’s development process.
Smooth drivability and quietness refinements are delivered through the evaluation of NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness). NVH is mainly controlled by the system dynamic interactions between mating components and structure which could be solid or fluid based. Simulation plays a significant role in the development process at Ford Motor Company and advanced analytical capabilities are used for the evaluation of such system effects.
My presentation will focus on the NVH analytical capabilities currently used at Ford Motor Company for the design and development of powertrains. Specifically, it will showcase the application of system level simulation through use of multi-physics and multi-disciplinary methods to drive the NVH refinement of Powertrains. The presentation will provide a high level view of the Ford simulation process with specific examples as to the optimization applied to drive the powertrain design from a component level to a full system level using a combination of Finite Element Methods, Acoustic Boundary Elements, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Fluid Structure Interaction and Multi-Disciplinary Optimization Methods.