Measurement of the Tire Dynamic Transfer Stiffness at

Operational Excitation Levels

P. Kindt, F. De Coninck, P. Sas, W. Desmet
K.U.Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Celestijnenlaan 300 B, B-3001, Heverlee, Belgium
e-mail: peter.kindt@mech.kuleuven.be

Abstract
The tire dynamic transfer stiffness describes how a displacement enforced at the tire contact patch results in
a force at the spindle-wheel interface. The dynamic transfer stiffness is expressed as a function of frequency
and provides insight in the generation of vehicle interior structure-borne tire/road noise. The road surface
texture excites the tire at the contact patch, resulting in structural waves travelling around the circumference
of the tire. The tire sidewalls transfer these vibrations to the rim. The vibrational energy is then transmitted
through the spindle-wheel interface toward the suspension and vehicle body. The resulting body panel and
window vibrations cause noise radiation in the passenger compartment.
It is known that the tire dynamic properties are dependent on the vibration amplitude. Therefore, the excitation levels during tire dynamic characterization tests should be similar as the excitation levels during
operation of the tire. This is not possible with the classic excitation devices such as hammer and electrodynamic shakers. This paper presents an experimental method to obtain the dynamic transfer stiffness of
a non-rolling tire which is excited at operational excitation levels. Therefore, a high-frequency 6-DOF hyR
) is used to excite the tire. The shaker table provides the static preload and
draulic shaker table (CUBE
excites the tire at the contact patch in the frequency range 20-235 Hz. The force at the fixed spindle is
measured by a piezo-electric dynamometer.

1 Introduction
The drivers subjective perception of a vehicle is strongly determined by its Noise, Vibration and Harshness
(NVH) characteristics. Well balanced vehicle NVH characteristics can enhance safety by reducing driver
fatigue and bring to the most modest of cars a perception of high quality. It is found that the vibro-acoustic
properties of a new vehicle have a very significant impact on the purchasing decisions. Consequently, the
NVH performance is an important design and marketing criterion for vehicle manufacturers.
Similar to the exterior vehicle noise, the main sources of noise inside the passenger compartment of a typical vehicle are: power unit, aerodynamics and tire/road interaction. The structure-borne tire/road noise
component originates from the tire vibrations that are generated by the tire/road interaction while driving.
This vibrational energy is transmitted through the suspension towards the vehicle body. The resulting body
panel and window vibrations cause noise radiation in the vehicle passenger compartment which is referred
to as structure-borne interior tire/road noise. The airborne interior tire/road noise component originates
from the exterior noise that is generated by the tire/road interaction. The sound waves are then transmitted through the air towards the windows and vehicle body panels. There are two paths along which sound
can be transmitted to the passenger compartment. First, the sound-induced vibrations of the vehicle body
panels cause noise radiation in the vehicle passenger compartment. Secondly, noise can enter the passenger

3991

3992

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

compartment at places where there is a poor sealing between the interior and the exterior environment (for
instance, around door and window seals). The structure-borne contribution dominates the interior tire/road
noise below 500 Hz [1]. At higher frequencies, the airborne contribution is most significant.
In addition to the noise, the driver of a vehicle experiences vibrations at the seat and steering wheel. Depending on the amplitude and frequency content, these vibrations can reduce the drivers comfort significantly.
Vibrations are perceived as most uncomfortable in the frequency range of 4-8 Hz (whole-body vibration) and
18-200 Hz (vibration of individual body parts), or in the frequency range below 1 Hz, where dizziness and
motion sickness can appear. Additionally, blurring of vision can occur due to eyeball resonances in the range
20-70 Hz. For most road surfaces, the interaction between the tire and the road surface is a major source of
vibrations; which are then transmitted through the suspension towards the vehicle body.
Improving the NVH characteristics of a vehicle and its components requires a thorough understanding of
the different noise sources, vibration sources and transmission paths of structural and acoustic energy in
the vehicle. Consequently, there is a need for more accurate tire models to support vehicle NVH simulations
during the development process. This also involves more accurate testing methods which characterise the tire
under operational excitation levels in order to quantify non-linear dynamic behavior [2]. These experimental
methods can either be applied to obtain an experimental model or to validate and parameterize a numerical
tire model. This paper focuses on the tire dynamic transfer stiffness, which describes how a displacement
enforced at the tire contact patch results in a force at the spindle-wheel interface. The dynamic transfer
stiffness is expressed as a function of frequency and provides insight in the generation of vehicle interior
structure-borne tire/road noise.
The dynamic behavior of particle filled rubber strongly depends on the deformation magnitude, even for
small deformations. There are two stress-softening effects, known as the Payne effect [3] and the Mullins
effect [4], that occur in filled vulcanized rubber. The tire compounds consist generally of carbon black or
silica filled rubber. Consequently, these effects can be of importance. Another non-linearity of the tire is the
sidewall stiffness. It is well known that the tire sidewall stiffness depends on the sidewall deflection [5]. This
behavior is not material related, but rather a geometrical non-linearity since the sidewall can be approximated
as a pressurized curved membrane. As the sidewall deflection increases, the stiffness of the tire sidewalls
decreases.
Consequently, the excitation levels during tire dynamic characterization tests should be similar to the excitation levels during operation of the tire. This is not possible with the classic excitation devices such as
hammer and electrodynamic shakers. This paper presents a measurement method to obtain the dynamic
transfer stiffness of a non-rolling tire which is excited at operational excitation levels. Therefore, a highR
) is applied to excite the tire. The shaker table provides
frequency 6-DOF hydraulic shaker table (CUBE
the static preload and excites the tire at the contact patch in the frequency range 20-235 Hz.

2 Test setup for tire dynamic transfer stiffness measurements

2.1 Test setup layout
Figure 1(a) shows the test-setup for the measurement of the dynamic transfer stiffness of a non-rolling tire
with the CUBE 6-DOF shaker table [6]. The tire (205/55R16 without tread pattern; steel wheel) is mounted
on a piezo-electric spindle dynamometer (fig. 1(b) ) which measures the vertical spindle force. The goal of
the setup is to measure the dynamic stiffness of a tire that is rigidly clamped at the spindle. This is achieved
by fixing the dynamometer onto a seismic mass (1250 kg) which is supported by four soft air springs (4 x
100 kN/m). The natural frequencies of this system are far below the frequency range of interest (20-235 Hz)
such that the spindle is sufficiently isolated from the ground vibrations. The ground vibrations are significant
due to the presence of the CUBE shaker table. Since the shaker table also provides a static preload to the tire,
a system of air springs and pneumatic control valves (fig. 1(a) ) provides a counteracting force and moment

T YRE / ROAD NOISE AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

3993

CUBE 6-DOF
shaker table
X
Z

acc. 1-z
acc. 4-x
acc. 2-z

seismic mass (1250 kg)

on flexible air springs

acc. 4-y

acc. 3-z
piezo-electric
spindle dynamometer

seismic mass levelling and positioning

system with air springs and pneumatic
control valves

(b)

(a)

Figure 1: (a) Test-setup for the measurement of the dynamic transfer stiffness of a non-rolling tire with the
CUBE 6-DOF hydraulic shaker table. (b) Position and direction of the 4 accelerometers on the shaker table
used for the Time Waveform Replication.

onto the seismic mass in order to keep the seismic mass leveled at a fixed position. Here, the static tire
deflection is 16 mm, which for this tire corresponds to a preload of 285 kg.

acceleration transmissibility [dB]

Figure 2 shows the acceleration transmissibility between the tire contact patch z-acceleration applied by the
CUBE and the tire spindle z-acceleration. This transmissibility shows that the z-component of the spindle
acceleration is at least a factor 0.054 (-25.3 dB) smaller than the z-component of the applied shaker table
acceleration. This proves that the spindle can be considered as rigidly clamped in the frequency range of
interest.
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
20

-25.3 dB

(SPINDLE z-acc.) / (CUBE z-acc.)

50

100

150
200
frequency [Hz]

250

300

Figure 2: Acceleration transmissibility between the CUBE z-acceleration and the tire spindle z-acceleration.

2.2 Shaker table excitation

For the measurement of the tire vertical dynamic transfer stiffness, the shaker table should apply a purely
uniaxial excitation in the z-direction at the contact patch. Since the excitation force exerted by the shaker
table onto the tire has an offset with respect to the rotation centre of the shaker table, an open-loop control

3994

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

of the shaker table cannot ensure a purely uniaxial excitation. Especially at higher frequencies, rotational
motions of the shaker table can become significant, thus causing additional undesired excitations at the tire
contact patch. In order to ensure a purely uniaxial excitation at the contact patch of the tire, the motion of
the hydraulic shaker table will be monitored and controlled through a Time Waveform Replication (TWR)
algorithm [7]. The Time Waveform Replication is an advanced implementation of the off-line feedforward
control strategy for a system with N input drives (= controlled DOFs of the shaker table) and M (= observed
DOFs) output signals (MN). The goal of the TWR algorithm is to make the response at the observed DOFs
to converge iteratively to the target behavior. This target behavior is defined as time domain responses of
target transducers, which most often are forces or accelerations.

Acceleration [m/s]

60

acc. 1 - z
acc. 2 - z
acc. 3 - z

40
20
0
-20
-40

acc. 4 - x
acc. 4 - y

-60
24.4

24.45

24.5

24.55 24.6
time [s]

(a)

24.65

24.7 24.75

Autopower acceleration (PSD)

[ dB - ref. 1 (m/s)/Hz]

Several accelerometers are attached to the shaker table surface. Figure 1(b) shows the position and direction
of these accelerometers. The acceleration perpendicular to the shaker surface (z-direction) is measured in
points 1, 2 and 3. In point 4, which is close to the tire contact patch, two perpendicular components of the
in-plane acceleration of the shaker surface are measured. A purely uniaxial excitation of the tire contact
patch in the z-direction is ensured when the z-acceleration at the points 1, 2 and 3 are equal and the xand y-acceleration at point 4 are equal to zero. Therefore, 5 acceleration target signals are defined in the
time domain, which comply with the above stated requirements to obtain an uniaxial excitation. These time
domain target accelerations will be reproduced by iteratively updating the shaker table drive signals. Here, 5
drive signals are selected, which correspond to the following 5 controlled DOFs of the shaker table: x-, y-,
z-displacement and rotations around the x- and y- axis.
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70

acc. 1 - z
acc. 2 - z
acc. 3 - z
acc. 4 - x
acc. 4 - y

100

120

140
160
180
frequency [Hz]

200

(b)

Figure 3: Measured accelerations on the shaker table after iteratively updating the 5 shaker table drives in
the frequency range 100-200 Hz. (a) section of the time signals, (b) autopower spectra

Figure 3 shows the 5 measured accelerations (time and frequency domain) on the shaker table after iteratively
updating the 5 shaker table drives in the frequency range 100-200 Hz. This figure clearly shows that the
excitation of the shaker table can be considered as purely uniaxial since 3 points of the shaker plane have an
identical acceleration and the in-plane motion of the plane is negligible compared to the out-of plane motion.

2.3 Operational excitation levels

It is known that the tire dynamic properties are dependent on the vibration amplitude. Therefore, the excitation levels during tire dynamic characterization tests should be similar to the excitation levels during
operation of the tire. However, this is not possible with the classic excitation devices such as hammer and
electrodynamic shaker. The multi-axial hydraulic shaker table, which operates at an oil pressure of 280 bar
and which has a table dynamic mass of 590 kg, is able to exert dynamic forces up to 82 kN. The control
bandwidth for 6-DOF experiments was experimentally determined at 0-300 Hz. This makes the shaker table appropriate for reproduction of road excitations which arise from driving on smooth and medium rough
roads [6].

Autopower (PSD) acceleration

[dB - ref. 1 (m/s)/Hz ]

T YRE / ROAD NOISE AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

20

3995

cube acceleration acc.1 - z

15
10
5
0
-5
-10

freq. band 20-100 Hz

freq. band 100-200 Hz
freq. band 175-235 Hz

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240

frequency [Hz]
Figure 4: Autopower spectra of the CUBE z-acceleration (enforced tire contact patch acceleration) for the 3
different frequency bands.

Autopower (PSD) acceleration

[dB - ref.1 (m/s)/Hz]

The measurement of the dynamic transfer stiffness is performed in three frequency bands: 20-100 Hz, 100200 Hz and 175-235 Hz. Within each frequency band, the shaker table provides a random excitation at
the tire contact patch. Figure 4 shows the autopower spectrum of the shaker table z-acceleration for the
three different frequency bands. The excitation frequency range is divided in frequency bands such that
higher excitation levels can be obtained in the individual frequency bands, compared to an excitation over
the entire frequency band 20-235 Hz. The imposed contact patch acceleration in the frequency range 20-100
Hz causes spindle forces which are of the same level as measured during rolling on a rough road surface. For
the frequency range 100-200 Hz and 175 - 235 Hz, the obtained spindle forces are approximately 15 % of
the forces measured during rolling on a rough road surface.
50

acc. response
X

contact patch
excitation
with CUBE

-50
CUBE excitation 20-100 Hz
CUBE excitation 100-200 Hz
CUBE excitation 175-235 Hz
electrodynamic shaker excitation

-100
-150

20 40

60

80

100 120 140 160 180 200 220

frequency [Hz]

acc. response
X

rigid
surface
55

F
6

Electrodynamic shaker
(B&K 4809) excitation

Figure 5: Autopower spectrum of the radial acceleration at a point on the tire surface due to the CUBE shaker
contact patch excitation and due to an electrodynamic shaker excitation.

Figure 5 shows the autopower spectrum of the radial acceleration at a point on the tire surface of a loaded tire
due to two different excitations. The first excitation is provided by the CUBE hydraulic shaker table and is the
excitation which is used to measure the dynamic transfer stiffness (fig. 4). The second excitation is provided
by an electrodynamic shaker (B&K 4809) which is typically used to measure frequency response functions
in order to determine experimentally the modal parameters of the loaded tire [8]. This figure clearly shows
that the CUBE excitation causes significant higher vibration levels. At 100 Hz and 200 Hz, a difference of
45 dB (factor 177) and 22 dB (factor 12), respectively, is observed between the response due to the CUBE

3996

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

and the electrodynamic shaker excitation. The largest difference between the two excitations appears at 20
Hz, where the response autopowers differ 96 dB.

3 Results tire dynamic transfer stiffness measurement

The measured dynamic transfer stiffness in the tire vertical direction is shown in figure 6. On this figure, the
three frequency bands corresponding to the excitations shown in figure 4, can be distinguished. At the edges
of the frequency bands, no significant discontinuities in the dynamic stiffness curve can be observed. This
indicates that the difference in excitation level between the different frequency bands is sufficiently small in
order to not cause significant changes of the system behavior.
10

TIRE DYNAMIC STIFFNESS Fz / z

LOG

PHASE [rad]

AMPLITUDE [N/m]

98 Hz

230 Hz
127 Hz

10

10

156 Hz

190 Hz
222 Hz

5
0
-5
-10
-15

20

50

100
150
frequency [Hz]

200

235

20

50

100
150
frequency [Hz]

200

235

Figure 6: Amplitude and phase of the measured tire dynamic transfer stiffness. Contact patch excitation and
spindle force measurement in the tire vertical (z-) direction.

The vertical dynamic transfer stiffness shows a peak at 98, 127, 156 and 190 Hz, which correspond to the
resonance frequency of the (1,0) vert., (2,0) extr., (3,0) extr. and (4,0) extr. structural tire mode, respectively.
Figure 7 shows some of the tire modes which have been obtained from an experimental modal analysis on
the loaded tire [2]. For each mode, the resonance frequency and modal damping ratio are indicated below
the mode shape. Figures 7 shows that the modes which determine the dynamic transfer stiffness, correspond
to bending modes of the tire belt in which an anti-node is located in the contact patch (modes of fig. 7 (b),
(d), (f) and (h)). On the contrary, belt bending modes in which a node is located in the contact patch (modes
of fig. 7 (a), (c), (e) and (g)) have a much lower contribution to the tire dynamic transfer stiffness.
In addition to the structural modes, a peak appears in the dynamic transfer stiffness at 230 Hz, which corresponds to the frequency of the first vertical acoustic mode of the air cavity. At this frequency, the acoustic
pressure variations in the tire air cavity are maximum near the contact area (see fig. 7 (i)). The peak in the
dynamic stiffness appears at 230 Hz, whereas, the frequency of the vertical acoustic resonance was determined at 227 Hz by the experimental modal analysis. This frequency difference is most likely caused by
a higher temperature of the air inside the tire air cavity during the dynamic transfer stiffness measurement.
The CUBE shaker table has during operation a surface temperature of approximately 40o C. The tire acoustic
resonances frequencies are more sensitive to changes in the tire temperature, compared to the structural tire
resonances [2]. A higher temperature causes an increase of the acoustic resonances. At 222 Hz, a small peak
is visible in the dynamic transfer stiffness curve. This frequency corresponds to the first vertical acoustic

T YRE / ROAD NOISE AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

Z
Y Y

3997

Z
Y Y

Y Y

Y
X

Y
Z

(2,0)0: 117.94 Hz; 3.43%

(c)

(b)
X

Y
X

Z
Y Y

Y Y

Y Y

(2,0)extr: 126.74 Hz; 3.18%

(3,0)0: 142.56 Hz; 2.87%

(d)
X

(3,0)extr: 156.03 Hz; 2.75%

Z
+p

Y Y

Z
Y
X

X
Z

(4,0)0: 172.66 Hz; 2.89%

(g)

0
-p

Y
Z

(f)

(e)

Y Y

X
Z

(1,0)vert.: 98.22 Hz; 4.09%

(a)

Y
Z

(1,0)hor.: 82.15 Hz; 5.42%

(4,0)extr: 189.10 Hz; 2.86%

(h)

acoustic vert.: 227.35 Hz; 0.43%

(i)

Figure 7: Tire modes obtained from an experimental modal analysis on the loaded tire. (a)-(h): structural
modes; (i): acoustic mode.

mode of the air cavity. This mode exhibits no acoustic pressure variations in the tire air cavity near the
contact area. Consequently, this mode is poorly excited by an excitation at the contact patch.

4 Numerical prediction of the tire dynamic transfer stiffness

In this section, the dynamic transfer stiffness of the same tire is numerically predicted. This prediction is
base on the structural tire model described in [9].

4.1 Tire model description

The structural tire model, which is implemented as a finite element model, is based on a three-dimensional
flexible ring on an elastic foundation. The ring represents the treadband and the elastic foundation represents
the tire sidewall. The model is valid up to 300 Hz and is able to predict the response of the tire treadband,
wheel and air cavity. The parameterization of the model, which does not require detailed knowledge of the
tire construction, is based on the main geometrical properties of the tire and a limited modal test on the

3998

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

unloaded tire. Figure 8(b) shows the different submodels of which the tire model is composed. The different
submodels will hereafter be briefly discussed.
b

Y
h

(1)
X

treadband ring cross-section

Y
Z

(2)
(4)
(3)

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 8: (a) Cross-section of the ring which represents the tire treadband. (b) Different submodels of the
tire-wheel model: (1) treadband ring, (2) wheel, (3) tire sidewall, (4) air cavity (for clarity, the cavity model
is shown separately). (c) Tire-wheel model at the end of the loading simulation.

The treadband is modeled as an isotropic, homogeneous three-dimensional ring. The ring cross-section is
shown in figure 8(a). Despite this drastic simplification, the tire model exhibits acceptable accuracy in the
frequency range of interest. The non-linear static material behavior of the ring is described by the NeoHookean hyperelastic material model. The dynamic material properties of the treadband (described by a
complex Youngs modulus) are considered to be frequency independent. The reference surface of the ring
is discretized in the finite element model by linear 4-node shell elements (ABAQUS S4R elements). These
elements allow transverse shear deformation (Kirchhoff constraint is not enforced; however, it is assumed
that a plane section remains plane) and account for finite membrane strains and arbitrarily large rotations.
The wheel submodel is a finite element model of the steel 16 wheel (discretized by 4-node shell elements).
The model does not include a damping definition and the geometry of the wheel is modeled in detail since
the flexibility of rim and disk are highly influenced by their complex shape.
The tire sidewalls are approximated by distributed linear spring-damper systems in radial, tangential and
axial direction. An experimental modal analysis on an unloaded tire, clamped at the spindle, shows that the
first three resonances can be considered as resonances of a spring-mass system in which the sidewall acts
as a spring and the treadband as a mass. The sidewall spring stiffness and damping are derived from the
experimentally determined modal parameters of the first three tire modes. The sidewall model is based on
the assumption that the dynamic behavior of the sidewall is independent of the treadband dynamic behavior.
For the cross-sectional bending modes of higher order (above 300 Hz for this tire), the sidewall dynamic
behavior deviates too much from a spring-damper system and a more detailed description of the sidewall is
required.
The tire air cavity is discretized by 8-node linear brick acoustic elements (ABAQUS AC3D8 elements) and

T YRE / ROAD NOISE AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

3999

is coupled to the structural mesh of the wheel and treadband ring. The sidewalls of the cavity are considered
to be acoustically rigid.
After assembling the different submodels, a simulation of the tire inflation is performed. The wheel centre
is clamped and the tire is inflated to 2.2 bar in a geometric non-linear static analysis. The inflation pressure
is applied to the rim outer surface and the treadband ring inner surface. This pressure loading induces a
circumferential pretension in the ring. Besides the circumferential tension, the tire treadband is also subjected
to an axial tension. This tension is not induced by the inflation pressure in the presented model and therefore
the axial tension will be applied through an external tensile load.

4.2 Simulated tire dynamic transfer stiffness

The above presented model of an unloaded tire-wheel assembly provides a physical description of the dynamic behavior of the belt, wheel and air cavity and their mutual interactions. Therefore, the model is also
able to describe the dynamic behavior of a tire at other operating conditions, such as loading. In order to
compare the measured and numerically predicted transfer stiffness, the same boundary conditions as during
the experiment have to be enforced on the tire-wheel assembly model. Therefore, the model of the unloaded
tire-wheel assembly is subjected to a static deformation of 16 mm due to the contact with a rigid, flat road
surface. The loading is achieved by clamping the wheel at the wheel-spindle interface and imposing a vertical displacement on the rigid road surface towards the tire. The contact between the treadband and road,
the large deformations of the treadband and the hyperelastic material definition introduce non-linear effects
during the loading of the tire. Therefore, a non-linear FE method is required that solves the problem incrementally. A Coulomb friction coefficient of 0.5 is used in the simulation. Figure 8(c) shows the tire model
at the end of the loading simulation.

AMPLITUDE [N/m]

10

Fz / z
10
10
10
10

PHASE [rad]

TIRE DYNAMIC STIFFNESS

8 LOG

Fx / z

Fy / z

6
4

Fz

Fy
0
0

0
-10
-20
-30
0

50

100

150

frequency [Hz]

200

250

300

Fx
z

50

100

150

200

250

300

frequency [Hz]

Figure 9: Amplitude and phase of the simulated vertical, longitudinal and axial dynamic transfer stiffness
for a vertical footprint displacement.

Next, the tire dynamic transfer stiffness is calculated. Therefore, the steady-state reaction forces at the
spindle-wheel interface are calculated due to a harmonic displacement of the rigid surface with an amplitude of 0.1 mm. The response of the loaded tire is calculated in a steady-state harmonic analysis which
assumes linear dynamic behavior of the tire in its loaded state. Figure 9 shows the amplitude and phase of
the simulated vertical, longitudinal and axial dynamic transfer stiffness for an enforced harmonic footprint

4000

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

displacement in the vertical (z) direction. The dynamic transfer stiffness is calculated up to 300 Hz. Since
the contact patch excitation is purely in the vertical direction, the vertical spindle force component is the
most dominant.

4.3 Validation
Figure 10 compares the numerically predicted and measured vertical dynamic transfer stiffness (Fz/z). The
agreement is good, except for the frequency shift on some of the peaks of the dynamic stiffness curve. As
can be observed from table 1, there is a difference between the measured resonance frequencies and the
resonance frequencies predicted by the loaded tire model. The majority of the predicted natural frequencies
are within 5 % of the measured natural frequencies. The predicted resonance frequency of the (2,0) extr. and
(3,0) 0 mode deviate -6.2 % and -5.3 % with respect to the measured value, respectively.
The comparison of the frequencies in table 1 and the peaks in figure 10 clearly shows that both the predicted
and measured dynamic stiffness curve are mainly determined by the (1,0) vert., (2,0) extr., (3,0) extr. and
(4,0) extr. structural tire mode. In addition, the first vertical acoustic tire mode significantly contributes
to both the measured and predicted dynamic stiffness. The experimental modal analysis on the loaded tire
shows that the (4,0) extr. mode and the rim pitch mode both appear at 190 Hz. For the model, these two
resonances are predicted at 185 Hz and 189 Hz, respectively. This explains the more smeared out peak in
the calculated dynamic stiffness curve around these frequencies. Figure 10 also indicates that the model
overestimates the static tire stiffness.

AMPLITUDE [N/m]

10

LOG

TIRE DYNAMIC STIFFNESS Fz / z

96 Hz 98 Hz

10

10

228 Hz230 Hz

119 Hz 127 Hz
189 Hz190 Hz
149 Hz 156 Hz
185 Hz

Fz / z MODEL
Fz / z TEST

4
20

50

100

150

200

235

150

200

235

PHASE [rad]

frequency [Hz]

0
-10
-20

20

50

100
frequency [Hz]

Figure 10: Amplitude and phase of the simulated and measured vertical dynamic transfer stiffness for a
vertical footprint displacement.

5 Conclusions
This paper presents a measurement method to obtain the dynamic transfer stiffness of a non-rolling tire
which is excited at operational excitation levels. The excitation amplitude is particularly of importance when

T YRE / ROAD NOISE AND EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION

mode
(1,1) hor.
(1,1) vert.
(1,0) hor.
(1,0) vert.
(2,0) 0
(2,0) extr.
(2,1) 0
(2,1) extr.
(3,0) 0
(3,0) extr.
(3,1) 0
(3,1) extr.
(4,0) 0
(4,0) extr.
1st rim bending 0
1st rim bending extr.
rim pitch 0
rim pitch extr.
(4,1) 0
(4,1) extr.
(5,0) 0
(5,0) extr.
1st acoustic hor.
1st acoustic vert.

TEST
freq. [Hz]
51.9
64.8
82.2
98.2
117.9
126.7
102.1
87.0
142.6
156.0
*
162.4
172.7
189.1
183.1
183.1
189.6
189.6
236.6
225.2
205.1
222.1
219.0
227.4

4001

[%]
1.97
2.48
5.42
4.09
3.43
3.18
2.78
2.46
2.87
2.75
*
2.78
2.89
2.86
2.53
2.53
1.15
1.15
2.38
1.44
3.10
2.79
0.69
0.43

MODEL
freq. [Hz] [%]
50.1
1.50
62.1
1.73
82.0
4.81
96.5
3.13
123.6
3.54
118.9
3.09
101.48
2.85
84.06
2.28
135.0
3.07
149.2
3.04
199.0
5.38
162.3
4.39
164.5
3.43
184.9
3.74
179.7
3.51
179.9
3.54
188.7
1.44
189.3
1.71
246.0
6.88
224.6
6.02
202.0
4.28
225.2
5.03
219.2
1.48
229.3
1.94

Table 1: Comparison between measured and calculated modal parameters of the loaded tire. ( indicates a
not experimentally identified mode)
dealing with non-linear systems, as the system behavior varies with the energy content of the input. It has
been shown that the tire vibration levels are significantly higher in the presented testing method, compared
to the classical experimental tire dynamic characterization methods.
The experimentally obtained dynamic stiffness has been validated by comparison with the numerically predicted dynamic stiffness. This comparison, combined with the results of an experimental modal analysis,
showed that the experimental and numerical dynamic stiffness are both dominated by the same structural
and acoustic tire modes.
Deviations between the predicted and measured dynamic transfer stiffness are most probably caused by the
tire sidewall description of the model. The used sidewall model is a linearised approximation of the sidewall
dynamic behavior for a tire in its unloaded state.
A next step in the ongoing development of the test setup is to extend the frequency range of the dynamic
stiffness measurement up to 300 Hz. Currently, a setup resonance starts to influence the measurements in
the frequency range above 235 Hz. An envisaged application of the presented measurement method is to
quantify the excitation amplitude non-linearity of a tire at operational excitation levels.

4002

P ROCEEDINGS OF ISMA2010 INCLUDING USD2010

Acknowledgements
Part of the research reported is funded by a PhD grant of the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through
Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen).

References
[1] L.G. Hartleip, T.J. Roggenkamp, Case Study - Experimental Determination of Airborne and Structureborne Road Noise Spectral Content on Passenger Vehicles. proceedings of the 2005 SAE Noise and
Vibration Conference, Traverse City, USA, 2005, paper 2005-01-2522.
[2] P. Kindt, Structure-Borne Tyre/Road Noise due to Road Surface Discontinuities. PhD thesis, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 2009. ISBN 978-94-6018-085-9.
[3] A.R. Payne, The dynamic properties of carbon black-loaded natural rubber vulcanizates. part I. Journal
of applied polymer science, 6(19):5763, 1962.
[4] L. Mullins, Softening of rubber by deformation. Rubber Chemistry and Technology, 42:339362, 1969.
[5] F. Chengjian, G. Dihua, The quantitative analysis and experimental verification of the tire static enveloping model using experimental modal parameters. Vehicle System Dynamics, 44(9):675688, 2006.
[6] F. De Coninck, Multi-axial road reproductions for non-linear road noise models. PhD thesis, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, 2007. ISBN 978-90-5682-755-7.
[7] F. De Coninck, W. Desmet, P. Sas. Increasing the Accuracy of MDOF Road Reproduction Experiments:
Calibration, Tuning and a Modified TWR Approach. proceedings of ISMA 2004, International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven, Belgium, 2004, pp. 709-722.
[8] P. Kindt, F. De Coninck, P. Sas, W. Desmet. Experimental Modal Analysis of Radial Tires and the Influence of Tire Modes on Vehicle Structure Borne Noise. proceedings of the FISITA 2006 World Automotive
Congress, Yokohama, Japan, paper F2006D210, 2006.
[9] P. Kindt, P. Sas, W. Desmet. Three-dimensional Ring Model for the Prediction of the Tyre Structural
Dynamic Behaviour. proceedings of the ISMA 2008 International Conference on Noise and Vibration
Engineering, Leuven, Belgium, 2008, pp.4155-4170.