2. Experimental assessment of rolling noise

Measuring tire-road contact noise (or rolling noise) has long been an essential part of assessing, understanding and reducing emission phenomena. The impact of tire type or road surface type on noise emission was first studied by measuring roadside noise as a test vehicle passed. These measurements were used to build the first so-called "empirical" models, and are still used today in so-called "hybrid" models, whose validity is highly dependent on the accuracy of the measurements taken. Physical models are not yet sufficiently advanced to estimate rolling noise on the basis of tire and pavement physical parameters, and laboratory reproduction of rolling noise remains unrealistic. It is therefore still necessary to measure rolling noise on site to design noise-optimized pavements and assess their acoustic properties once in place.