An Experimental Study of Longitudinal Tire Relaxation Constants for Vehicle Traction Dynamics Modeling
Abstract Existing literature on vehicle traction dynamics were reviewed for a variety of vehicle and tire dynamic models, some of which consider the pneumatic tires’ relaxation as a property of vehicle transient dynamics. In general, unlike the lateral relaxation counterpart, the longitudinal tire relaxation characteristics were mostly overlooked in tire transient dynamics modeling. As a continuation of the analytical study published in the 2018 DSCC Proceedings, the co-authors of this paper present an experimental study of the longitudinal tire relaxation characteristics of a Continental MPT 81 tire. Experimental results were obtained by conducting tests on an MTS Flat-Trac LTR tire testing machine. The experimental data is analyzed to investigate longitudinal tire relaxation characteristics as they relate to changes of tire conditions. The goal is to verify and refine the existing models suggested in the literature; as well as, discuss advantages and disadvantages of different test procedures and tire testing equipment. In particular, the paper investigates the longitudinal tire relaxation constant variation due to changes of wheel velocity, tire inflation pressure, and sine oscillations of tire slippage in the time and frequency domains. The paper concludes on the influence of the longitudinal tire relaxation constants on the tire/vehicle traction dynamics modeling.