An auralization model for structure-borne tire noise

Abstract

In the automotive industry, a Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) issue such as road noise is an important factor for the perceived quality of a product. A useful method to address NVH problems and to reduce field-testing is to combine recordings and simulations into auralizations. The objective of this paper was to develop an auralization model of structure-borne tire noise based on operationally measured hub forces and validate it by comparison with artificial head recordings made under the same conditions. To create auralizations under the same condition as the recordings, the wheel hub forces used for the recordings were measured and filtered through experimentally measured binaural transfer functions from the same hub of the car to an artificial head in the cabin of the car. The auralization model was validated in a listening test where the criterion for considering the auralizations to be sufficiently similar to the recordings was that eight different tires should be ranked equally in a listening test regardless of whether the test was based on auralizations or recordings. Listening test results from ranking of tires with respect to the annoyance of interior sounds showed good agreement between auralizations and recordings. There were no significant differences between rankings based on recordings and auralizations – except for tires assessed to be very similar – at either 50km/h or 70km/h. The conclusion was that the use of auralizations for ranking of structure-borne tire noise gives results that match listening tests based on recordings, and this supports the validity of the auralization model.