The two previous articles in this mini series (see RE V31N11 and V32N1) have provided an overview of the most common tyre testing and modelling methods. They have highlighted how dominant factors like temperature, pressure and wear have, historically, been challenging to incorporate into a formulation that would work in real-time, and how both could be used as an input and an output.
In this third and final article, a new approach to tyre testing and modelling will be introduced, one whose main innovation is the ability to consider the aforementioned thermodynamic parameters during the testing and modelling phase.
The goal of the model is to describe tyre thermal behaviour, including the interaction with the external environment and internal wheel chamber
Using outdoor testing performed with a car used as a moving laboratory, and without the need for expensive, tailored equipment, non-destructive measurements performed directly on tyres show a new way of modelling them.
As previously mentioned, a young Italian start-up illustrated a more comprehensive methodology to understanding and describing tyre behaviour. In this article, we will focus on how critical thermodynamic quantities can be measured and integrated into a tyre model, how that affects the force and moments exchanged with the road, and how those changes depend on tyre characteristics and external factor inputs.
Thermodynamic model
The goal of the model is to describe tyre thermal behaviour, including the interaction with the external environment and internal wheel chamber (inner air, rims, brakes etc).
As touched upon in the previous two articles, tyre behaviour and performance are influenced by many factors, and not