Johann Pankau Named Featured Speaker at the 45th Annual Tire Society Conference
NVH Consulting LLC is proud to announce that Johann Pankau, Founder and Chief Technical Officer, will be a featured speaker at the 45th Annual Conference and Business Meeting on Tire Science and Technology, taking place September 22-23, 2026, in Akron, Ohio.
Pankau will present:
Tire NVH: Critical Review of Testing Methods through the Lens of Tire-Road Interaction
The presentation will explore one of the most important and complex areas of modern vehicle development: understanding how tires, road surfaces, testing methodologies, and vehicle systems work together to influence noise, vibration, harshness, and overall ride comfort.
For engineers working in tire development, vehicle dynamics, NVH, simulation, testing, and product optimization, these interactions can significantly affect both measured performance and the experience of the driver and passengers.
Looking Beyond Traditional Tire NVH Testing
A tire is the vehicle’s direct connection to the road. Every change in pavement, tire construction, tread design, operating condition, vehicle load, and speed can influence the forces and vibrations transmitted into the vehicle.
Because of this complex interaction, evaluating tire NVH requires more than simply collecting laboratory measurements. Engineers must also understand how testing conditions represent what occurs when a tire is operating on an actual road.
Pankau’s presentation will take a critical look at established and developing testing methods through the perspective of tire-road interaction, examining how engineers can better understand the advantages and limitations of different approaches.
The goal is not simply to generate more test data, but to generate data that provides meaningful insight into real-world vehicle behavior.
Decades of Tire, Vehicle, and NVH Engineering Experience
Johann Pankau brings more than 35 years of automotive research and development experience to the discussion. His background includes extensive engineering work in Germany and the United States involving tires, vehicle chassis, braking systems, ride comfort, NVH, simulation, and vehicle integration. Before founding NVH Consulting LLC, he led Tire NVH activities at Continental Tire North America, with responsibilities covering tire NVH, ride and comfort, simulation, vehicle interaction, and optimization.
His engineering experience also includes brake NVH, finite element analysis, vehicle testing, sound quality, modal analysis, vibration diagnostics.
This combination of tire, brake, chassis, vehicle, and NVH knowledge provides an especially valuable, unique perspective when examining tire-road interaction. Instead of analyzing the tire as an isolated component, the discussion can consider how tire behavior ultimately influences the complete vehicle.
Why Tire-Road Interaction Matters
Modern vehicle development continues to place greater emphasis on refinement, comfort, efficiency, and acoustic performance. At the same time, engineers must account for increasingly complex vehicle architectures and a wide variety of road surfaces and operating environments.
Tires play a central role in this equation.
Road input passes through the tire before reaching the suspension, body structure, and occupants. Tire characteristics can therefore influence vibration, structure-borne noise, airborne noise, steering feel, vehicle dynamics, and ride comfort.
NVH Consulting LLC has consistently emphasized the importance of evaluating tires as part of the larger vehicle system. The company’s work includes Tire NVH, NVH benchmarking, tire ride comfort, vehicle NVH testing, sound quality, modal analysis, data acquisition and evaluation, vehicle dynamics, and customized NVH training.
Pankau’s Tire Society presentation will build on this systems-level approach by examining how testing strategies can better account for the relationship among the tire, road surface, and vehicle.
Connecting Testing, Simulation, and Real-World Performance
One of the continuing challenges in NVH engineering is establishing strong correlation among controlled testing, simulation, component-level measurements, and actual vehicle performance.
A testing method may provide repeatable measurements, but repeatability alone does not guarantee that the test accurately reflects the conditions responsible for a customer-perceived noise or vibration issue.
Understanding these differences is particularly important in tire development, where changes in road texture, operating speed, tire loading, construction, and tread characteristics can alter the resulting NVH behavior.
By critically reviewing testing methodologies through the lens of tire-road interaction, Pankau’s presentation will encourage engineers to consider not only how measurements are taken, but also what those measurements represent when the tire is installed on a vehicle and driven under real-world conditions.
Continuing NVH Consulting LLC’s Commitment to Engineering Knowledge
Founded in 2025, NVH Consulting LLC provides specialized engineering expertise in noise, vibration, and harshness, tire and brake technology, ride comfort, testing, simulation, durability validation, and technical training. The company works with automotive organizations while also applying NVH expertise to additional industries where vibration and acoustic performance are critical.
The company has also continued to strengthen connections between industry and academia. NVH Consulting LLC has collaborated with Kettering University’s Noise, Vibration, Harshness, and Experimental Mechanics Laboratory to support research and development involving areas such as tire NVH, ride comfort optimization, and brake system noise reduction.
Participation in the 45th Annual Conference and Business Meeting on Tire Science and Technology represents another opportunity to exchange technical knowledge, discuss current engineering challenges, and contribute to the continued advancement of tire science and vehicle NVH.
Join Johann Pankau in Akron
45th Annual Conference and Business Meeting on Tire Science and Technology
September 22-23, 2026
Akron, Ohio
Featured Presentation
Tire NVH: Critical Review of Testing Methods through the Lens of Tire-Road Interaction
NVH Consulting LLC looks forward to connecting with engineers, researchers, tire professionals, suppliers, OEMs, and other members of the automotive engineering community during this year’s conference.
To learn more about NVH Consulting LLC, its tire NVH expertise, vehicle ride comfort services, testing capabilities, engineering consulting, and customized technical training, visit the NVH Consulting LLC website or contact the team to discuss your next engineering challenge.
