Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 07 Sept 2018

Estimation of Tire–Road Contact Features Using Strain-Based Intelligent Tire

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Page Range: 276 – 293
DOI: 10.2346/tire.18.460402
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ABSTRACT

Sensors attached inside the tire near the contact area can provide crucial information on contact characteristics, e.g., slip, forces, and deformation of tires. Vehicle control systems such as antilock braking systems (ABS) and vehicle-stability control (VSC) can be enhanced by leveraging this information, since control algorithms can be updated based on directly measured parameters from intelligent tires rather than estimated parameters based on complex vehicle dynamics and on-board sensor measurement. Moreover, tire characteristics can be investigated by scrutinizing the sensor measurements on the basis of well-defined physical theories on tire mechanics. In this article, estimations of tire contact features have been studied with the circumferential strains measured inside the tire. These parameters were imported to physical tire models to finally predict lateral force, which plays the crucial role in algorithms of vehicle control systems, as well as in analysis of tire performance.

Keywords: intelligent tire; strain sensor; contact length; contact force; slip angle; estimation; tire modeling
FIG. 1
FIG. 1

Schematic view of strain sensor installation.

FIG. 2
FIG. 2

Flat-Trac test rig.

FIG. 3
FIG. 3

Characteristics of tire strain time history, adapted from Morigana et al. [1].

FIG. 4
FIG. 4

Strain measurements at −4° slip angle and schematic view of contact patch.

FIG. 5
FIG. 5

Estimated contact shapes for different slip angles at 100% Fz.

FIG. 6
FIG. 6

Contact lengths variation at different slip angles (left) and % standard deviations of contact lengths over various slip angles.

FIG. 7
FIG. 7

Regression results between contact lengths and test loads: curve-fitting plot (left) and residual-fit plot (right).

FIG. 8
FIG. 8

Relationship between deformation of tread ring and deformation speed wave form at the time of entering in the leading edge [4].

FIG. 9
FIG. 9

Regression results between in/out ratio of peak strain rate and slip angle: curve-fitting plot (left) and residual-fit plot (right).

FIG. 10
FIG. 10

Slope of peak strain rate over the channels for slip angle estimation.

FIG. 11
FIG. 11

Regression results between slope of peak strain rate and slip angle: curve-fitting plot (left) and residual-fit plot (right).

FIG. 12
FIG. 12

Slip angle estimation results.

FIG. 13
FIG. 13

Scheme for lateral force estimation based on Brush tire model.

FIG. 14
FIG. 14

Magic formula fitting on measured lateral force with characteristic parameters.

FIG. 15
FIG. 15

Assumed pressure distributions at different test loads.

FIG. 16
FIG. 16

Lateral force estimation results.

FIG. 17
FIG. 17

Curve-fitting between cornering stiffness with estimated contact length (left) and peak lateral force and estimated contact length (right).

Contributor Notes

1 Corresponding author. Mechanical Engineering Department, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 100W2 Randolph Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Email: lhojong@vt.edu
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