Application of a pattern recognition technique to the prediction of tire noise

Tire treads are one of the main sources of car noise. To meet the EU׳s tire noise regulation ECE-R117, a new method using a pattern recognition technique is adopted in this paper to predict noise from tire tread patterns, thus facilitating the design of low-noise tires. When tires come into contact with the road surface, air pumping may occur in the grooves of tire tread patterns. Using the image of a tread pattern, a matrix is constructed by setting the patterns of tire grooves and tread blocks. The length and width of the contact patch are multiplied by weight functions. The resulting sound pressure as a function of time is subjected to a Fourier transform to simulate a 1/3-octave-band sound pressure level. A particle swarm algorithm is adopted to optimize the weighting parameters for the sound pressure in the frequency domain so that simulated values approach the measured noise level. Two sets of optimal weighting parameters associated with the length and width of the contact patch are obtained. Finally, the weight function is used to predict the tread pattern noise of tires in the same series. A comparison of the prediction and experimental results reveals that, in the 1/3-octave band of frequency (800-2000 Hz), average errors in sound pressure are within 2.5 dB. The feasibility of the proposed application of the pattern recognition technique in predicting noise from tire treads is verified.