Air-related mechanisms of noise generation by solid rubber tyres with cavities

There are four main air-related noise generation mechanisms at the tyre/road interface, which were all categorised more than 20 years ago. The first one is the so-called ‘air pumping’ mechanism. Two other air-related phenomena that occur when there are air movements near the contact patch of the tyre are ‘air resonant radiation’ and ‘pipe resonances’ which appear at the footprint of the tyre. In addition to these, there is a forth effect, which is mentioned in the literature, that is occurring due to turbulence effects of the air surrounding the spinning tyre. There has been less focus on the air-related mechanisms than on other types of tyre noise generation mechanisms. This paper attempts to add some detail to current understanding of the air-related noise generation at the tyre road interface and gives some further information on how to identify the differences due to these mechanisms. Specifically in the present paper, a solid rubber tyre running on a vehicle chassis dynamometer is used to study the first two mechanisms. This is done with emphasis on the time history of the recorded signal and not on the frequency spectrum, as is more commonly used. A comparison with existing theoretical models of these mechanisms reveals some of the strength and weaknesses of the current understanding of these phenomena.