Stuart Bolton wants to quiet things down on our highways and roads. He and colleagues at Purdue University are trying to help tire manufacturers design tires that don't make so much noise. Bolton says that the way tires are made now, especially the shape of the treads, is what makes some tires more prone to noise generation than others. When they interact or smack onto the pavement, the blocky shapes act like hammers, he explains. Underlying reinforcement belts in the tire vibrate and radiate energy outward, producing sound resembling the cones in stereo speakers. Bolton is one of several Purdue University researchers who developed a mathematical model that helps designers identify the portions of the tire that produce the noise. "We've introduced a way of experimentally looking at tire vibration in a way that identifies components that generate the most noise," says Bolton. He measures various vibration waves that travel along the tire's tread band—the outer segment of the tire that includes the reinforcing belts. Specific vibrations are assigned wave numbers. These modes are used for creating graphs that illustrate which vibration is coming from specific portions of the tire. The graphs also indicate which vibrations are likely to produce the most noise. Purdue's Institute for Safe, Quiet, and Durable Highways is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Michelin Tire, Continental General Tire Inc., Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., and Hancock Tire Co. Ltd.
Really impressive how they mathematically modeled such a complex and dynamic system acoustically. Would be interesting to see how much noise reduction could be achieved using this new analysis technique.
The article gave emphasis on the importance and benefit of using quiet suv tires. Working with tire companies like Goodyear, Hancock and Rubber Co. is a great help to deal with the problem to introduce different ways to lessen the noise.
As energy efficiency becomes more and more a concern for makers of electronics devices, researchers are coming up with new ways to harvest energy from sound vibration, footsteps, and even electromagnetic fields in the air.
The government wants to study your brain, and DARPA wants to use similar information to give robots true autonomy beyond any artificial intelligence developed to date. Sound like science fiction? It's not.
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