Commissioning of the CSIR's Tyre Testing and Stress-in-Motion Facilities for Improved Tyre Parameterisation

All of a vehicle’s cornering and acceleration forces are transmitted through its tyres to the road. Tyre testing and parameterisation are therefore fundamental to vehicle dynamics research. Lateral stiffness properties are typically acquired using a tyre tester, such as the CSIR’s medium-sized trailer-type tyre tester. Other tyre parameters important for road wear impact research include the stress distributions in the tyre contact patch. The CSIR’s proprietary Stress-In-Motion system (SIMS) was developed to measure these stresses in three dimensions, primarily for road wear impact research. In this paper, we present the commissioning of both the CSIR’s medium tyre tester and the CSIR’s SIMS, with the aim of ultimately combining simultaneous measurements from both to provide new levels of tyre parameterisation data. Critical to the commissioning of the trailer itself was verification of the on-board load cells and slip angle adjustment. In addition to this, calibration of the on-board sensors and data acquisition systems was performed. These systems include an inertial measurement unit, a Correvit slip-angle sensor, a camera-based slip angle measurement system, and string potentiometers. Valuable lessons were learnt in the commissioning and integration of all the disparate systems. This prepares the way for future tyre parameterisation research, especially for heavy-duty vehicle tyres.Papers presented at the 38th International Southern African Transport Conference on "Disruptive transport technologies - is South and Southern Africa ready?" held at CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa on 8th to 11th July 2019