Among many potential problems associated with passenger cars, the problem regarded as most sensitive and important to the customers is the passenger car’s quietness. In particular, because the trend toward the high-performance passenger cars is increasing, the quietness should be considered reflecting the increasing demand of the customers for the comfort of passenger car ride. Road noises are of low-frequency in the region of 20Hz to 350Hz, generated when the tires are making contacts with the rough road surface while the passenger car is running, in which the noises are resonating within the passenger compartment or with the passenger car suspension. In this research, among the factors related to the road noises, the influencing factors associated with the suspension and the tire design were investigated. In particular, among the tire design factors, the structure and the rubber material were investigated as the influencing factors, and for the investigative purpose, experimental tires were manufactured and road noise evaluations were conducted thorough actual feeling tests. Then the test results and correlations were analyzed using the 6-Sigma statistical method.

Abstract
 1. Preface
 2. Selection of tire design factors for comparative comparison of road noises
 3. Experiments and results
  3.1 Road noises associated with apex heightand apex hardness
  3.2 Road noise analysis associated with beltangle, tread hardness, and apex height
  3.3 Road noise analysis associated withpassenger car types
 4. Conclusion
 References

• Tae_Keun Lee(Daeduk College) | 이태근
• Byoung-Sam Kim(Wonkwang Univ. Dept. of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering) | 김병삼