Survey of noise emission from truck tires

The most effective way to reduce road traffic noise disturbances is to remove or improve the noisiest sources. Tightened emission limits in the latter part of the 1990s will reduce noise emission from trucks and buses to levels which were common to passenger cars just a few years ago. However, this means that tire/road noise will become the most prominent noise source on new heavy vehicles in almost all free-flowing traffic. Therefore, attention will partly turn from differences in noise between various engines, transmissions and exhaust systems to differences between tires and between road surfaces. The investigation presented here is, therefore, the only one in recent years where a relatively wide selection of heavy vehicle tires can be compared regarding noise emission at non-accelerated driving. The aim is not to classify the tires but to see the range in noise and how it relates to the road surface in question.