piast9 wrote:Holm86 wrote:That is not entirely correct. The sound does depend on firing order, V angles etc. But in a flat 4 engine 2 cylinders doesn't fire at the same time. In a flat 4 engine one cylinder fires every 180°. Just as an inline 4.
You're right. I was misled by nice Subaru rumble but it appears it's just due to the firing order - here's an explanation:
http://www.rahul.net/ddoudna/Subaru/
The rumble of the Subaru is because of unequal length headers introducing half order content.
An order is how frequently something occurs per revolution. So for example with an engine and a crank shaft. The crankshaft obviously rotates once per revolution.
So at 600rpm it has a frequency of (600/60) = 10Hz.
At 1200rpm it has a frequency = 20Hz.
2nd order is something that happens twice per revolution, in the case of a 4 cylinder engine this is the cylinders firing.
Firing order is usually by far the most dominant harmonic. 4th order is the 1st harmonic of 2nd, and so on.
2nd order would have a frequency of
600rpm = 600*2/60 = 20Hz
1200rpm = 1200*2/60 = 40Hz.
Half order is something that happens every 2 rotations, which corresponds to a specific cylinder. Cylinder to cylinder variation would give half order content in the sounds you hear.
http://www.vibratesoftware.com/html_hel ... htm#Normal Engine Vibrations Chart
Inlet and exhaust headers (exhaust are more important for noise), are just like a musical instrument. It plays a certain note depending on it's length. With equal length headers, every pulse from firing will 'play' the same note. So you get a very tonal sound, as the combustion events are equally spaced.
Unequal length headers introduce cylinder to cylinder variation in the note played. You will still get the tone from the engine firing (2nd order), but you also get frequencies introduces of orders 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 etc. This gives a characteristic burble.
The thing is it can get very tricky, very quickly and you can engineer noise in and out using the exhaust. Playing with phase, resonators etc. And indeed having two separate exhausts, meaning you treat each bank separately.
EDIT: Further to this, for an engine you don't hear the 1st order. 1st order noise/vibration is only heard when there is an imbalance in the crankshaft. Which would mean it would grenade itself before you could hear it.