The work carried out in LEONT in the period M1 – M42 is summarized below:
WP1: The management activity has progressed as expected and the milestones and submission of all the deliverables have been achieved satisfactorily.
WP2: Tire wear particle emissions have been investigated in the laboratory environment (VTI road simulator) and in the field (open roads and test tracks) using closed and open in-vehicle test arrangements. The correlation in the generation and physical characteristic of tyre particles and wear in these different environments is now understood.
WP3: Suitable methods for sampling, pre-treating and analysing TWP in environmental matrices have been investigated and developed.A new accelerated UV aging test for measuring degradation and fragmentation of TWP has been developed and an emission modelling has been built. The average chemical composition and physical properties of tyre particles, the effect of aging on them and its toxicology has been defined and reported.
WP4: The evaluation of tyre noise annoyance (including the measurement of physiological data) has been carried out together with sleep tests to understand and assess the impact of tyre noise on the cardiovascular system. The results show that tyre noise transients determine negative sleep effects and that additional psychoacoustic parameters, different from the traditional decibel, can be of value to better assess noise annoyance and sleep disturbance.
WP5: The technical specifications of an airless tyre concept has been defined as corresponding to the capacity of truck tyres of dimension 285/70R19. For this particular design used in LEON, the noise and rolling resistance performance of the corresponding prototype are similar to those found for conventional tyres. However, airless tyres for trucks could present significant advantages for circular economy.
WP6: Possible future new policies and mitigation strategies on tyre wear particle emissions, microplastics and noise emissions have been proposed and assess in terms of Cost/Benefit analysis.
WP7: The core of the communication activities has relied on the project website to display the different updates of the project (
https://www.leont-project.eu/(öffnet in neuem Fenster)). Social media like Twitter and LinkedIn have been intensively used to attract external stakeholders, policy makers as well as general audience. A considerable number of technical and scientific publications have been carried out.
