The Full Form of NVH is‍ Noise, vibration, and harshness.

When speaking of NVH in the context of automotive vehicle design, there is no clear definition available as to which phenomena and frequency ranges are being addressed by noise, vibration, and harshness. Depending on how the phenomena are being perceived by the occupant or environment they are considered either as noise, vibration, or harshness. However, most of the problems are being received either as vibration or noise whereas the frequency range between 100 Hz and 500 Hz is nowadays the most challenging one. In this frequency range, airborne and structure-borne sound phenomena are of equal importance. Therefore, in the following discussion of NVH in automotive design only noise and vibration aspects will be considered with a slight emphasis on noise.

Travel pleasure nowadays is more and more frequently synonymous with individual wellness and performance feeling during transfer phase, which mainly depends on the control of ambient parameters and on the perception of noise and vibration levels. With regard to automotive engineering, the vibro-acoustic design deals with noise and vibration experienced by passengers inside the cabin and perceived exterior noise. It is largely concerned with the time signal history and frequency spectrum characteristics of major airborne and structure-borne sound/noise sources.