State-of-the-Art Review on Sustainable Design and Construction of Quieter Pavements-Part 2: Factors Affecting Tire-Pavement Noise and Prediction Models

Traffic noise is a combination of noises produced from a number of sources. Of all the traffic noise sources, tire-pavement noise, which is emitted as a result of the interaction of rolling, slipping, or dragging tires and the pavement surface, is the dominant contributor of overall noise, particularly when vehicles are moving at higher speeds. Therefore, a number of research studies have been conducted to identify and analyze the factors affecting the generation of tire-pavement interaction noise. This helps in identifying and selecting appropriate noise mitigation techniques. In this paper, an extensive literature survey on the factors affecting tire-pavement noise is presented, and different views on the impact of each individual factor are discussed. From the literature survey, it is also evident that there is a potential correlation between pavement's material characteristics and tire-pavement noise. A comprehensive discussion about this correlation is presented in the paper. In addition, this paper discusses various mathematical models for predicting pavement noise, and their advantages and shortcomings.