Environmental noise, and in particular road traffic noise, is a growing concern for the health and well-being of millions of people in Europe. The increasing pressure from regulations and standards has led to a substantial R&D effort in the automotive industry.

Pirelli and Politecnico di Milano have been at the forefront of tyre/road noise research for years, to build up new experimental methodologies and modelling approaches that can effectively support the development of more and more silent tyres.

ABEN (AirBorne Exterior Noise) is a long-term research project started in May 2019, activated under the ‘Joint Labs’ programme, that Pirelli and Politecnico di Milano have recently renewed, ten years after the first agreement. ABEN focuses on the development of innovative modelling tools for acoustic simulation and tyre noise prediction. All with diversified objectives, ranging from the definition of new design criteria to the possibility of predicting noise in real operating conditions, without resorting to physical prototypes.

To date, the ABEN project has already led to the release of a dedicated software to support the acoustic optimization of the tread pattern, and a machine learning based predictive model of tyre rolling noise is currently under development.

The next challenges that the project team will face are the correlation between the sound fields produced in indoor and outdoor test conditions and the further development of 3D physical models for tyre vibroacoustic simulation.

The ABEN project, in collaboration with Pirelli, is directed by Prof. Roberto Corradi.