Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 01 Oct 2019

Effect of Rubber Hardness and Tire Size on Tire-Pavement Interaction Noise

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Page Range: 258 – 279
DOI: 10.2346/tire.18.460412
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ABSTRACT

Tire-pavement interaction noise (TPIN) is a dominant noise source for passenger cars and trucks above 25 mph (40 km/h) and above 43 mph (70 km/h), respectively. TPIN is generated due to excitations of the tread pattern and pavement texture. For the same tread pattern and pavement texture at the same speed, TPIN might also be influenced by the tire structure (e.g., the tread rubber hardness and tire size). In the present study, 42 tires with different rubber hardnesses and/or tire sizes were tested at five different speeds (45–65 mph, i.e., 72–105 km/h) on a nonporous asphalt pavement (a section of U.S. Route 460, both eastbound and westbound). An on-board sound intensity system was instrumented on the test vehicle to collect the tire noise data at both the leading edge and the trailing edge of the contact patch. An optical sensor recording the once-per-revolution signal was also installed to monitor the vehicle speed and, more importantly, to provide the data needed to perform the order-tracking analysis to break down the tire noise into two components. These two components are the tread pattern noise and the non–tread pattern noise. It is concluded that for the nonporous asphalt pavement tested, the non–tread pattern noise increases with rubber hardness by ∼0.23 dBA/Shore A. The tire carcass width (section width plus two times section height) influences the central frequencies of the non–tread pattern noise spectrum; the central frequencies decrease as the tire carcass width increases.

Keywords: tire noise; noise separation; non–tread pattern noise; rubber hardness; tire size
FIG. 1
FIG. 1

Tread patterns of the test tires (arrow indicates rotation direction).

FIG. 2
FIG. 2

Test pavement (source: Google Maps).

FIG. 3
FIG. 3

Test vehicles (left: Chevy Impala; right: Chevy Tahoe).

FIG. 4
FIG. 4

On-board sound intensity (OBSI) with optical sensor installed on the test vehicle.

FIG. 5
FIG. 5

Issues in testing tires of different sizes (left: larger tires on Impala; right: smaller tires on Tahoe).

FIG. 6
FIG. 6

Wheel adapter.

FIG. 7
FIG. 7

Spectrogram of microphone 1 (leading inboard) for tire 12 accelerating from 45 to 65 mph (72 to 105 km/h).

FIG. 8
FIG. 8

Spectrogram of microphone 1 (leading inboard) for tire 15 accelerating from 45 to 65 mph (72 to 105 km/h).

FIG. 9
FIG. 9

Illustration of separation of tread pattern noise and non–tread pattern noise (60 mph [97 km/h] test).

FIG. 10
FIG. 10

Total, tread pattern, and non–tread pattern noise components at 60 mph (97 km/h; A-weighted, 5-Hz resolution).

FIG. 11
FIG. 11

Surface fitting for rubber hardness effect.

FIG. 12
FIG. 12

Tire size parameters.

FIG. 13
FIG. 13

Tires of different sizes.

FIG. 14
FIG. 14

Non–tread pattern noise spectra for tires of different sizes (narrow band, 5-Hz resolution).

FIG. 15
FIG. 15

Correlation between central frequency and tire size parameters (blue circle denotes original data; red line denotes fitted curve; the text above each subplot includes R2, coefficient of determination; rms, root mean squared value; [a, b], coefficients in regression equation y = ax+b).

Contributor Notes

1 Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA. Email: L@vt.edu. Current address: Maxxis Technology Center, Suwanee, Georgia 30024, USA
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