A THREE-DIMENSIONAL TIRE REF MODEL IN ROLLING CONTACT WITH APPLICATION TO INTELLIGENT TIRES

Abstract

ABSTRACT A new three-dimensional tire REF (ring on elastic foundation) model in rolling contact has been proposed and verified in this paper. The motivation is to apply this new physical model to the three-dimensional forces estimation for intelligent tires, which is currently a research hotspot in the automotive industry. The core contribution is the analytical solution of the three-dimensional tire deformation, stress, and forces in complex rolling contact. This new physical model is universal and efficient in linking intelligent tire signals with the solution results, which provides a powerful theoretical tool for intelligent tire modeling. Furthermore, the results have been validated by sensitivity analysis of key structural parameters on tire performance. In summary, through the modeling, verification, and application in case studies, it has been shown that the proposed methodology can be used for real practical three-dimensional forces estimation, which has the potential to simplify the vehicle state observer and benefit autonomous vehicles.