A coupled tire structure/acoustic cavity model

The dynamic characteristic of the tires is a key factor in the road-induced interior noise in passenger vehicles. The tire acoustic cavity is a very important factor in the tire dynamics and it must be considered in analyses. This paper describes a closed form analytical model for tire-wheel structures. In order to incorporate the dynamics of the cavity on the tire response, the tire acoustic-structure coupled problem is solved simultaneously. The tire is modeled as an annular cylindrical shell where only the outside shell is flexible, i.e. tire sidewalls and wheel are assumed rigid. From the analytical solution of the eigenproblems, both the tire structure and cavity acoustic responses are expanded in terms of their eigenfunctions. The main objective of the model is to have an efficient tool to investigate the physical coupling mechanisms between the acoustic cavity and the tire structure without the need of complicated numerical model such as finite elements. The result shows that the proposed model captures the main mechanisms of the effect of the tire air acoustic on the tire dynamics. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.