Analytical model of the truck tire vibration sound mechanism

A theoretical model is developed to describe the sound radiation by the surface vibration of in-service truck tires. The tire is modeled as an infinitely long incomplete circular cylindrical shell. The effects of inflation pressure and structural damping are included. The normal displacement, velocity, and acceleration resulting from a fluctuating load are determined using Flügge’s thin shell theory. Through numerical integration of the surface acoustic intensity, the radiated sound power is calculated as a function of damping, inflation pressure, and bending stiffness. Results indicate that the forced acoustic response is insensitive to small changes in the material loss factor and the bending stiffness. The inflation-induced membrane stresses determine the acoustic response character to a large extent and total neglect of the bending stiffness does not seriously affect the calculated sound power. The basic sound radiation mechanism is shown to be the damped progressive wave field on the structure in the vicinity of the applied force. The results indicate that the potential sound reduction might best be approached through study of the tire loading and vibration response mechanisms.