Optimizing the noise performance of a low-noise vehicle wheel

Paper in proceeding, 2004

The reduction of noise generated by the tire/road interaction is essential for reducing the environmental noise in the modern society. So far, only relatively small achievements have been made to make quieter tires of traditional design. For a substantial reduction of the tire/road noise (more than 10 dB), new concepts of wheel design have to be investigated, modeled and tested. One example of a relatively new wheel concept is the so-called composite wheel, invented by the Swedish inventor Hans-Eric Hansson in the late 1980th. The wheel consists of a circular belt made of glass fiber- or carbon fiber reinforced plastic, supported by a rim with carbon fiber spokes. Since no pressurized air is used inside the wheel, there is a greater freedom to design the belt with ventilation holes that reduce both the sound radiation from the vibrations, as well as the amplification by the horn effect. In this paper, a model is developed for the sound radiation of the composite wheel, which is used in conjunction with a vibrational model of the wheel to predict the sound generation of it. Additionally, the horn effect is studied and compared to measurements. Further, a parameter study is performed using the model. The results shows that the design of the ventilation holes in the belt strongly influence the noise behavior of the wheel.