EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF TYRE NOISE OF TWO AND THREE WHEELED VEHICLES

Abstract

Tyre noise affects both the occupants of the vehicle and the community. At moderate to high speeds the noise from tyre typically dominates, provided the vehicle is equipped with a reasonably good exhaust muffler and is in good state of repair. As consumers have become more concerned about quiet products and as highway development programs have brought increased high speed traffic, public sensitivity to traffic noise have increased significantly. Several studies indicate that tyre noise is primarily produced by the interaction of the tyre with the roadway, rather than by other mechanism such as aerodynamic flow of air over the tyre. The main cause of noise generated at the interface is air pumping. Several attempts have been made to measure and model the noise generated from heavy vehicle tyres however not much work has been reported so far to measure and model the tyre noise of small vehicles. In the present dissertation, the noise generated from the tyre of two and three wheeled vehicles has been measured. The effect of various parameters i.e. speed, load, inflation pressure, ply rating, size and wear of the tyre has been investigated and coefficient of variation calculated to find the effect of these parameters on noise generated at the interface. The mechanism of tyre noise generation and its measurement techniques have also been discussed in this report. For experimental investigations, a setup has been fabricated to shield the noise emitted by electric motor, gear box, and rolling drum.