Lightweight acoustic metasurfaces for tire cavity noise control
04 Mar 2026
Room 2
Materials, chemicals and related processes – developments and innovations - session 2
Tire-pavement interaction noise (TPIN) has become a critical challenge in vehicle acoustics as conventional powertrain noise diminishes and electric vehicles gain market share. Among the various TPIN generation mechanisms—including tire vibrations, air pumping, adhesion, and aerodynamic effects—tire cavity resonance produces particularly prominent noise peaks in the in-cabin environment. Current mitigation strategies predominantly employ porous materials, such as polyurethane foam liners, applied to the inner tire wall to attenuate cavity resonance through thermal and viscous energy dissipation. However, these conventional solutions face significant limitations: constrained installation space, degraded performance under environmental exposure, and insufficient tunability for targeting specific resonant frequencies. This study introduces an innovative alternative approach using acoustic metasurfaces mounted on the tire rim for targeted TPIN mitigation. By leveraging the reflective, phase-shifting, and resonant properties of metasurfaces, this design enables precise manipulation of the tire cavity's acoustic field, particularly at low frequencies below 500 Hz where cavity resonance peaks typically occur. A comparative numerical study was conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics to evaluate the acoustic performance of metasurface liners against conventional porous liners within an impedance tube configuration. Results demonstrate that metasurfaces achieve substantial sound pressure level (SPL) reduction and significantly higher transmission loss per unit effective density compared to porous materials, confirming enhanced space and mass efficiency. These findings establish acoustic metasurfaces as a promising technology for lightweight, frequency-tunable, and highly effective TPIN control in next-generation quiet tire designs.
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