Abstract

A laboratory study of force transmission in radial truck tires is described. The experiments are conducted with the tire‐wheel assembly attached to a fixed, nonrotating axle. Contact with the tire is provided by a flat surface. Single frequency displacement cycles are applied to the loaded tire footprint, and the dynamic force transmitted through the tire is measured at the fixed axle. Fourier transform signal analysis is used to extract the cyclic displacement and force amplitudes. The amplitude ratio force/displacement is defined as the force transmissibility. The experiments show inflation pressure and tire load to have little effect on force transmissibility. A single degree of freedom tire model for force transmissibility is described. The model uses easily measured tire parameters and is intended for use in vehicle models to include the effect of tire dynamics.