Abstract
Tires are essential components of vehicles and are able to transmit traction and braking forces to the contact patch, contribute to directional stability, and also help to absorb shocks. If these components can provide information related to the tire–road interaction, vehicle safety can be increased. This research is focused on developing the tire as an active sensor capable to provide its functional parameters. Therefore, in this work, we studied strain-based measurements on the contact patch to develop an algorithm to compute the wheel velocity at the contact point, the effective rolling radius and the contact length on dynamic situations. These parameters directly influence the dynamics of wheel behavior which nowadays is not clearly defined. Herein, hypotheses have been assumed based on previous studies to develop the algorithm. The results expose to view an experimental test regarding influence of the tire operational condition (slip angle, vertical load, and rolling velocity) onto the computed parameters. This information is used to feed a fuzzy logic system capable of estimating the effective radius and contact length. Furthermore, a verification process has been carried out using CarSim simulation software to get the inputs for the fuzzy logic system at complex maneuvers.
Highlights
The tire is the only component in contact with the road surface
The analysis made about the estimated parameters applies within the boundaries of the experimental test and this analysis should be checked for any data outside of those boundaries
This study proposes a methodology that uses these experimental data to estimate the effective radius (Re f f ), the length of the contact patch, and the speed of the wheel at the point of contact (Vw )
Summary
The tire is the only component in contact with the road surface. It is a flexible structure covered commonly with rubber compounds, and when it is rolling onto a surface, it causes the phenomena of hysteric losses due to its periodical deformation in the contact patch. The knowledge of the tire dynamic parameters helps to understand the mechanics of the interaction between the frictional surfaces [1,2]. This tire–road interaction is directly related to the sliding condition in the tire footprint, this information can be used to estimate the dynamic friction available to transmit the vehicle’s traction [3]. An intelligent tire must be able to monitor the tire parameters related to a vehicle’s dynamic behavior, e.g., load transfer, tangential forces, tire condition, road conditions or friction coefficient, the velocity at the contact patch, contact length, and effective rolling radius, which currently, are not commonly known. The better the study and measurement of the behavior of the Sensors 2020, 20, 1750; doi:10.3390/s20061750 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
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