For those living near roads with busy Heavy-Goods Vehicle (or Heavy Duty Vehicle) traffic the exposure to tyre-generated noise has been shown to cause health issues. Reducing truck tyre noise emissions reduces these hazards. However, noise must not be reduced at the expense of other important tyre characteristics such as rolling resistance, wear and safety.
Optimisation of tread patterns and composition on a conventional pneumatic tyre is very unlikely to enable a drastic reduction of tyre noise. We will demonstrate a novel truck tyre/wheel design that has greatly reduced noise emissions, directly addressing impact 4 of the call. The demonstrated airless tyre serves as an example of the potential of the general class of airless tyres that allow a different set of compromises.
Our airless tyre will be prototyped and tested against a common conventional truck tyre in a laboratory setting (running against ISO and CNOSSOS reference surfaces), where we target to achieve a 6 dB(A) reduction in noise emissions while also showing reduced rolling resistance, as well as comparable dry and wet traction. We will also demonstrate the airless tyres on an Heavy-Goods Vehicle (or Heavy Duty Vehicle).