Multi-coupled biomimetics for tire noise reduction

Abstract

To explore ways of reducing tire noise, a 205/55R16 KR10 semi-steel radial tire was used as the research object. Vibration noise and aerodynamic noise were analyzed using the modal transfer vector method and the computational fluid dynamics method respectively. The cat’s paw pads can swivel left to right when walking, which dampens vibrations. The left-right pivoting characteristics of the cat’s paw pads are successfully transplanted into the tire by opening asymmetric bypass tube grooves in the tread to form a bionic tire. The results showed that the bionic tire can effectively decrease vibration noise. However, without considering the bypass tube’s resonant muffler acoustic noise reduction, the bionic tire increased aerodynamic noise. According to the multi-coupling bionic concept, the shark scale shield structure is coupled based on the bionic tire, and the shark-like structure is targeted at the sound source to form a multi-coupled bionic tire. Characterized by the left and right pendulum positive damping motion of the cat’s paw pad as well as the non-smooth damping structure of the shark scale shield, the multi-coupled bionic tire jointly reduced the tire vibration noise and aerodynamic noise.