Application of acoustic metamaterial for tire noise reduction

Abstract

Increased traffic volume leads to increased noise emitted by the vehicles. Additionally, the lightweight design of vehicles worsens the noise, vibrations and harshness behavior. The total noise of the vehicle consist of multiple sources. We focus on the influence of sound emitted by the tire on the interior cabin noise and on the pass-by noise. To address the problem, we develop two different wheelhouse liners based on a compound material and an acoustic metamaterial, respectively. The compound material consists of porous layers as well as a microperforated panel. The acoustic metamaterial relies on a periodic arrangement of local resonators. Both materials are numerically modeled and experimentally validated. We first measure the absorption coefficient of the liner in the Alpha Cabin. We then mount the liner to a vehicle and subsequently measure the performance of the full vehicle. We achieve improved performance in terms of sound attenuation and thus are able to reduce both, the cabin noise and the pass-by noise, significantly.