Yokohama nets top innovation award at Reifen 2014

ERJ staff report (PR)

Essen, Germany – Technology developed by Yokohama Corp. to visually represent the aerodynamic and acoustic rolling behaviour of tires took top prize in the 'technology and products' category of the Reifen 2014 innovation awards.

Working with the Japanese space authority JAXA, the tire maker managed to achieve a "genuine breakthrough" which will help the development of quieter and more aerodynamic tires, the Reifen jury decided.

The Yokohama team employed a supercomputer used in space research to show that the noise level of a rolling car tire is significantly related to flow structures in front of the tire which are subjected to a compression effect.

On 24 March, ERJ reported that Yokohama had developed the technology. At that time "the team achieved the world’s first simulation of near real-scale flow structures (turbulence) around a tire rolling on a road surface and the acoustic waves (noise) generated from these structures".