Development of rolling resistance measurement set-up in order to enable energy optimisation of vehicle-road interaction taking into account safety and performance

Reducing the rolling resistance for future vehicle designs creates a possibility to reduce the fuel consumption and make the future vehicles more economical and ecological. For electric vehicles it is also an enabler to increase their driving range per charge. When optimising for reduced rolling resistance, contradictory requirements such as force generation for maintaining safety and performance need to be considered. Furthermore, it is important to include both the effects of road surface and vehicle, to avoid sub-optimisation regarding only the tyres. A cross-functional conflict on the component level is well known, in form of energy consumption versus wet grip (traffic safety). On the system level, different wheel settings to optimise energy consumption conflicts with vehicle dynamical properties related to traffic safety, such as stability or steer response. The long term vision of the work presented is to create tools for more energy efficient vehicles by reducing the rolling resistance during driving. The first part is to establish a credible measurement method for rolling resistance on road under controlled conditions (lab environment). Today’s existing measurement methods on rolling resistance under laboratory conditions commonly utilise a rotating drum, whose curved surface affects the results. Therefore, rolling resistance influence of vehicle settings such as camber or toe angles is difficult to assess using standard methods, and there is a need for measurements using a more realistic contact patch, which would need a flat surface. The existing unique tyre testing facility at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, VTI, is used as a base for developing the new rolling resistance set-up. The tyre test facility is today used to determine tyre characteristics such as brake and steering forces. The method to measure rolling resistance with this equipment under highly controlled conditions is under development, and some preliminary results are presented