A Semi-Empirical Three-Dimensional Model of the Pneumatic Tyre Rolling over Arbitrarily Uneven Road Surfaces

Nowadays virtual prototyping tools play an important part in the development of vehicles. For studying the dynamics of a vehicle, complex vehicle models are required that are composed of several accurately modelled components. As the tyre constitutes the only contact between the vehicle and the road surface, it is one of the most important components of a vehicle model. For performing ride comfort and durability analyses, there is a need for accurate tyre models that can predict the loads that are transmitted from the tyre to the wheel axle when driving over road irregularities. In this study, such a tyre simulation model is developed that can represent the dynamic response of a tyre when rolling over uneven road surfaces. The approach followed is the combination of the well-known rigid ring dynamic tyre model and a suitable enveloping model that generates a three-dimensional effective road surface, which is used as input for the rigid ring model. The thesis deals with the development of the enveloping models and with the extension of the rigid ring tyre model so that this model is capable of handling the effective road surface. It is shown that the combination of the rigid ring model and the enveloping model can be used successfully to describe the tyre dynamic response to uneven road surfaces. In this research project, numerous experiments have been carried out for model development, parameter identification and model validation. The results of many of these experiments are presented in the thesis