A Test Rig for Tyre Envelope Model Characterization

This paper deals with tyre enveloping behaviour on uneven road surface. To build realistic and reliable vehicle dynamics models it is of fundamental importance to study the influence of road obstacles and irregularities on forces and displacements involving a rolling tyre. After a brief review about early studies concerning this phenomenon, the tandem model with elliptical cams is introduced and described, highlighting its hypothesis and the parameters on which it is based, the most important of which are the cams profiles and the distance between them. The main aim of this paper is the executive project of a test rig aimed to carry out an experimental campaign for the identification of the parameters of the tandem cam model and for its validation. The idea is to experimentally acquire the path of the patch centre of a tyre rolling over an obstacle, to define the parameters of the curves employed for the cam profiles and the distance between them in the tandem model. It is important to highlight that these parameters are strictly connected to tyre properties and need tests to be investigated and identified. The design started from a test bench for motorcycles already available at DII’s Tyre Lab, introducing proper changes without compromising original test bench destination.