Tire qualification for an OE program consists of several rounds of submissions by the tire manufacturer for evaluation by the vehicle manufacturer. Tires are evaluated both subjectively where the tire performance is rated by an expert driver, and objectively where sensors and testing instruments are used to measure the tire performance. At the end of each round of testing the evaluation results are shared and requirements for performance improvement for the next round are communicated with the tire manufacturer. As building and testing is both expensive and time consuming predictive modeling and simulation analysis that can be applied to the performance of the tire is of great interest and value.

This paper presents an application of FEA modeling along with experimental verification to solve tire noise objections at certain frequencies raised by an OEM account. Coupled structural-acoustic analysis method was used to find modal characteristics of the tire at the objectionable frequencies. Sensitivity calculations were then carried out to evaluate the strength of contribution from each tire component to the identified modes. Based on these findings changes to the construction were proposed and implemented that addressed the noise issue.