Tire mechanical model for cornering simulation with friction coefficient calculated from viscoelasticity of rubber by multiscale friction theory

Abstract

A friction coefficient of tire model for cornering simulation is generally set inductively to be consistent with experimental results. However, the inductively set friction coefficients have no clear relationship with the viscoelasticity of the rubber, so they cannot be used in the design of rubber formulations to obtain the desired friction coefficient. In this study, we propose a new tire mechanical model for cornering simulation that includes a friction coefficient deductively derived from the viscoelasticity of rubber based on the Persson’s multiscale friction theory. In this model, the contact pressure, sliding velocity, and lateral stress distributions are calculated based on an elliptical contact patch. Because the proposed model analytically connects the lateral force with the viscoelasticity of rubber, it is applicable to rubber design for achieving the targeted cornering properties. The validity of the model was experimentally verified using an internal drum machine with quartz piezoelectric sensors on an aluminium road segment. With appropriate parameter settings, the friction coefficient distribution in the length direction calculated by the proposed model agreed well with the experimental results compared to the elliptical contact patch tire model.