A novel evaluation method for rolling energy losses of tacked vehicle road wheels using experimental modal analysis

A novel evaluation method for rolling energy losses of road wheels of tracked vehicle is proposed, in which damping of road wheel surface is identified based on single vibration excitation and single point picking up frequency response function using a simplified modal experiment with an acceleration sensor. Three road wheels of tracked vehicle with different tread rubber are utilized as specimens during the modal experiments. The half power bandwidth method is employed to identify the viscous damping parameters. The damping parameters of road wheels are ranked by their values, and then these values of every road wheels are compared with their corresponding rolling energy losses to validate their correlative relationship. Moreover, the nonlinear deformation and stiffness of road wheels are investigated about their correlation with the rolling energy losses through model development and experimental validation. The results prove that the damping ratios of road wheels are correlated well with the rolling energy losses for all the three road wheels. The proposed evaluation method could effectively evaluate the rolling energy losses of road wheels, which suggests a simplified and economical alternative over the conventional rolling energy losses experimental method of road wheels.