In vehicles there are 3 main noise sources: powertrain noise (e.g. engine, gear engagement or exhaust noise), aerodynamic noise (or wind noise), and the noise from the tire-road contact. The first two are traditionally in the primary focus of vehicle manufacturers, however, due to both the already made powerful developments and the spreading of electric vehicles, the rolling noise is gaining more and more attention during the vehicle development process. There are two major influencing factors of this noise source: tire (geometrical and material) characteristics and road (surface) characteristics. The separation of their contribution is not straightforward, investigated rarely, and the requirements of homologation standards do not expect it neither. However, if one would like to meet the new vehicle pass-by noise regulations, it is more and more inevitable to have a sophisticated break-down of rolling noise. A straightforward solution is the usage of a one-wheel testbench developed directly for acoustical measurements. Such design process is presented in this paper, where the most important requirements are: enabling the users to compare tires from acoustical aspect under totally objective conditions, modelling the typical conditions of vehicles and ensuring data for rolling noise simulations. One further functionality of the testbench is to reproduce the real rolling noise by mounting realistic road surface sections onto the superficies.

Knowledge of the damping properties of a windshield is a fundamental element of the acoustical characterization of a car. The measuring method of damping for a windshield is presented in the paper. The damping loss factor – as a basic measure of mechanical damping – was determined experimentally by two means: the reverberation time from impact hammer testing as well as the modal behavior from 3D laser scanning vibrometer measurements. The results proved that the modal shapes have a fundamental effect on the measured damping values.