Fidelity of Finite Element–Based Virtual Tire Assembly Models Used for Vehicle Noise, Vibration, and Harshness Structural-Borne Noise Performance Considering Vibrational Modal and Steady-State Dynamic Simulation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The increasing presence of battery electric vehicles brings about new challenges to the noise, vibration, and harshness performance of tires. One of the new challenges involves the expansion of frequency range for structural-borne noise virtual predictions. Current standard virtual tire simplifies the tire geometry as an axisymmetric body, neglecting the effect of complex tread pattern. It is perceived that this simplification can lead to prediction error for a tire’s structural-borne noise performance at mid-frequency range (250∼500 Hz). This study investigates how different tread pattern representation affects the structural-borne noise prediction. This study uses linear, steady-state dynamics finite element simulations of a modified SAE J2710 test and traveling sinusoid test. The resulting frequency responses of the virtual tires and the computational time to obtain each frequency response are compared. The comparison shows that while including the 3D tread pattern does show some differences under certain conditions, it is not necessary to use this technique for every case, especially during the early evaluation stage.