Tire-road noise: an experimental study of tire and road design parameters

Abstract

It is widely known that road traffic noise has negative influences on human health. Hence, as tire-road noise is considered to be the most dominant cause of road traffic noise above 30-50 km/h, a lot of research is performed by the two involving industries: road authorities/manufacturers and tire manufacturers. Usually, the parameters influencing exterior tire-road noise are often examined separately, whereas it is the tire-road interaction which obviously causes the actual noise. An integral approach, i.e. assessing possible measures to reduce tire-road noise from both the road and the tire point of view, is needed to further reduce traffic noise. In a project Silent Safe Traffic, this tire-road interaction is studied in more detail without focusing on either tire or road but looking at the tire-road system. In this publication we present experimental results of tire and road design parameters influencing tire-road noise from a fixed reference tire-road configuration. The influence of tire tread pattern, compound and construction as well as the influence of road roughness, acoustic absorption and driving speed on the exterior tire-road noise, measured by a CPX-set up, is reported. Keywords: Tire, Road, Measuremen