Tyre tread pattern noise optimization by a coupled source-human perception model

The current tyre design process uses many experimental evaluations and it may take therefore more than 2 years to develop a tyre. The use of simulation tools improves and speeds up this process. Research has shown that the human perception of tyre tread pattern noise is mainly determined by the noise characteristics: level, tonalness and modulation (also called drumming). In this paper a new source model and human perception model is described. The source modelling approach predicts the correct trends of the three tyre tread pattern noise characteristics. From the noise characteristics dedicated Sound Quality Metrics are defined: for level the Standard Deviation (STD), for tonalness the Order Prominence (OP) and for modulation the Multi- Order Modulation (MOM). Using these Sound Quality Metrics the human perception model is obtained by regression analysis, predicting the human perception of tyre tread pattern noise correctly (R2=0.94). The coupled source - human perception model enables a very fast optimization of a complete tyre tread pattern design to human comfort.