Tire pitch arrangement optimization for noise reduction based on contact area spectrum analysis

The impact of tread patterns on the road surface is one of the main sources of automobile tire noise. Reducing such impact noise has become an important challenge in the field of tire technology. To address this issue, a method based on contact area spectrum analysis is developed to optimize the tire pitch arrangement and reduce tire noise. First, digital matrices are generated by scanning the images of tread pitches and footprint profile. Then, the digital matrices are superimposed to extract the contact area during tire rolling, and its spectral signal is adopted to establish the evaluation index of tire noise. On this basis, to minimize the peak of the contact area spectrum, a hybrid optimization strategy combining genetic algorithm and simulated annealing algorithm is developed to optimize the pitch sequence. The optimization result based on the contact area spectrum analysis is further improved by adjusting the misalignment between the upper and lower molds of the tread blocks. Finally, tire noise analysis data is used to verify the evaluation results based on contact area spectrum analysis. The results show that, compared with the initial pitch arrangement, the optimized pitch arrangement achieves a 64.01% reduction in the peak of the contact area spectrum, a 67.38% decrease in the peak sound pressure of tire noise, a 9.73 dB reduction in the maximum sound pressure level, and a 0.1052 dB reduction in the overall sound pressure level. The proposed method can effectively evaluate the tread pattern noise and optimize pitch arrangement in the early design stages of tires.