Yes / Cattle grids are used on roads and tracks to prevent grazing animals from leaving an open space without fencing onto a more controlled area where access to the road from surrounded land is more limited. They are widely used in the UK at the entrances to common and moorland areas where animals are free to roam, but also on private drive entrances. Typically, they consist of a series of metal bars across the road that are spaced so that an animal’s legs would fall through the gaps if it attempted to cross. Below the grid is a shallow pit that is intended to further deter livestock from using that particular crossing point. The sound produced as vehicles cross these devices is a characteristic low frequency “brrrr” where the dominant frequencies relates to the bar passage frequency under the tyres. The sound can be disturbing to riders and their horses and walkers and residents living close by as evidenced by press reports and the need to consider noise aspects in planning for new installations. For this reason and due to the lack of available information on the size and nature of the problem measurements and recordings have been made at a number of sites in Yorkshire in the UK. In addition, questionnaire surveys of residents living close by and façade measurements have also been used to gauge impact. Results show that there is a wide variation in the maximum noise level produced by cattle grids of apparently similar design. This can be related to impact noise produced by the movement of all or part of the grid as the frame comes under impulsive loading as the vehicle crosses. It was further established that some residents living close to the cattle grids were disturbed by the noise, and in some cases vibration, and wanted them removed or suitably modified. / The work was funded by the Bradford Centre for Sustainable Environments, University of Bradford.

The tonal character of the low frequency internal noise in cars is often due to energy transmission through the tyre at the first few eigenfrequencies of the air cavity of the tyre. The first acoustic mode in the air cavity of a typical stationary car tyre is approximately 224 Hz. At this frequency the tyre is comparatively stiff resulting in a high transmission of energy from the road wheel contact to the car body itself. In order to investigate possible means of reducing this effect, the acoustic field inside a tyre is modelled. Theoretically it is found that the pressure inside a tyre and the energy transmission through the tyre to the wheel axle and the car body can be reduced by adding a sound absorbing material inside the tyre. This was confirmed by measurements on stationary as well as rotating tyres with and without added sound absorption. For a rotating tyre there is a split of the natural frequency depending on the rotational speed of the tyre. Measurements in a standard passenger car reveal that the noise level inside the car is rather high in a fairly wide frequency range around 224 Hz at normal velocities. This tonal noise can be reduced by adding sound absorption inside a tyre. Models for the prediction and the reduction of the tonal noise are presented. Measured and predicted results are compared and the agreement is found to be good. It is found that the tonal noise can be reduced by up to 9 dB. The effects of the air cavity resonances on the external noise have also been studied. It is estimated that external tyre noise can be reduced 1 dB by adding a sound absorbing material inside tyres. For a car travelling on a road a strong acoustic field is induced between the floor of the car and the road. The impact of this acoustic field can be reduced by mounting a sound absorbing material underneath the car. It is estimated that the A-weighted sound pressure level close to a running car could be reduced by 3 dB by adding this type sound absorption. It is found that aluminium foam could be a suitable sound absorbing material which could be mounted inside tyres and underneath cars. The acoustic and dynamic properties of various types of aluminium foams are discussed. In particular measurement techniques for determining sound absorption at grazing incidence are investigated. / QC 20100923

Exterior vehicle noise has a very big impact when it comes to environmental noise pollution. Due to the decrease of the other noise sources of a passenger car, like power-train and air turbulence noise in the last decade, the tyre/road noise has become a more important part in the overall noise generation of a vehicle nowadays. It is considered as the main noise source in nearly all driving conditions, especially with increasing vehicle speed. The easiest idea to tackle this pollution is to introduce rules like speed-limits to control the noise at a certain area or time. More interesting, however, is to approach the problem of unwanted noise directly at the source. This Thesis, carried out at Loughborough University, aims to give a better understanding about the basic noise generation mechanisms at the tyre/road interface. Especially, the air related mechanisms of closed cavities are analysed. With the usage of a solid rubber tyre, unique measurements have been carried out and the results are compared to the theories already existing in the literature. These measurements reveal some of the strengths and weaknesses of the current understanding of air related noise generation.

The objective of the present work is to study the vehicle suspension as a vibro-acoustic system of high complexity, consisting of many sub-systems with fundamentally different acoustical properties. In a parallel numerical and experimental modelling effort, important contributions to the understanding of its behaviour have been achieved. These findings are based on a balance between component investigations and global modelling of the complete system; they have been formulated for the transmission of both tyre-road excitation and friction-induced vibrations in the brake system. Initially an experimental study was conducted on a full vehicle test rig studying the broadband interior brake noise problem of, here named, roughness noise. The purpose of the study was twofold: first, to determine if the transmission from the source to the interior of the vehicle was structure-borne; second, to study the complexity of the suspension as a vibro-acoustic system. Parameters a_ecting the vibro-acoustic source were varied to gain understanding of the source mechanisms. This experimental study laid the foundation of the first part of this thesis (paper A) and provided the directions for the second part, the development of a mathematical modelling approach (paper B and C). In these two papers, methods for analysing the complex vibro-acoustic transfer of structure-borne sound in a vehicle suspension system were developed. The last part was then focussed on the wheel rim influence on the vibro-acoustic behaviour (paper D) of the suspension system. As a whole, the work clearly demonstrates that it is possible to conduct component studies of subsystems in the vehicle suspension system; and from these component studies it is possible draw conclusions that very well may avoid severe degradations in the interior noise of future vehicle generations. / <p>QC 20130503</p>

Current European legislation aims to limit vehicle noise emissions since many people are exposed to road traffic noise in urban areas. Vehicle pass-by noise is measured according to the international standard ISO 362 in Europe. More recent investigations of urban traffic have led to the proposal of a revised ISO 362 which includes a constant-speed test in addition to the traditional accelerated test in order to determine the pass-by noise value. In order to meet the legal pass-by noise requirements, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers must analyse and quantify vehicle noise source characteristics during the development phase of the vehicle. In addition, predictive tools need to be available for the estimation of the final pass-by noise value. This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of vehicle pass-by noise and of the characteristics of the vehicle noise sources contributing to pass-by noise. This is supported through an extensive literature review in which current pass-by noise prediction methods are reviewed as well. Furthermore, three vehicle noise sources are replicated experimentally under laboratory conditions. This involves an orifice noise source, represented by a specially designed loudspeaker on a moving trolley, shell noise, represented by a metal cylinder structure, and tyre cavity and sidewall noise, represented by an annular membrane mounted on a tyre-like structure. The experimentally determined directivity characteristics of the acoustically excited noise sources are utilised in the pass-by noise prediction method. The predictive results are validated against experimental measurements of the three vehicle-like noise sources made within an anechoic chamber.