Relative Influence of Pavement Texture and Tire Type on Pavement/Tire Noise

Abstract

Noise from pavement/tire interaction was measured at three highway speeds (64, 80, and 96 kph) on five pavement textures (worn, grooved (three types), and randomly-scabbled), using three tire types: summer bias-ply (rib), summer radial (rib and sipe), and winter bias-ply (crossbar). Sound pressere levels were measured with a microphone positioned outboard of a passenger car near the tire. A real-time analyzer obtained A-weighted sound levels and one-third octave band spectra. It was found that on smooth surfaces with essentially no macrotexture, tire tread pattern is an important parameter in pavement/tire noise. Crossbar tread pattern and other traction type patterns are likely to produce higher sound levels than treads with a rib pattern. Evidence for an air pumping noise generation mechanism is provided by the much higher sound level produced by the crossbar tread pattern on a smooth surface than that of the rib patterns. For all the pavement types, the winter tire was distinctly noisier than the other tires in the frequency bands near 500 Hz. In general, as pavement textures increase, there is a decrease in the differences in sound levels among different tire types.