Experimental analysis of the structure-borne tyre/road noise due to road discontinuities

Tyre/road noise has become the major source of traffic noise in urban regions. Although tyre/road noise has been studied for decades, little can be found in the literature about the noise resulting from crossing road discontinuities such as expansion joints, railway crossings, and potholes. Both vehicle interior and exterior noise can reach significant peak levels as a result of crossing such a pavement discontinuity. This paper presents an experimental analysis of the generating phenomena of structure borne tyre/road noise due to a road discontinuity. Both exterior and interior tyre/road noise are considered. The influence of driving speed, cleat dimension, inflation pressure, tyre temperature and preload onto the noise generating phenomena is investigated. A novel test setup was designed and built at the K.U. Leuven Noise and Vibration Engineering Laboratory in order to measure the structural and acoustic response of a tyre rolling over a cleat. The vehicle interior noise is analysed by means of a test circuit cleat test. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.