A model for investigating the influence of road surface texture and tyre tread pattern on rolling resistance
Journal article, 2015

The reduction of rolling resistance is essential for a more environmentally friendly road transportation sector. Both tyre and road design can be utilised to reduce rolling resistance. In both cases a reliable simulation tool is needed which is able to quantify the influence of design parameters on the rolling resistance of a tyre rolling on a specific road surface. In this work a previously developed tyre/road interaction model is extended to account for different tread patterns and for losses due to small-scale tread deformation. Calculated contact forces and tyre vibrations for tyre/road interaction under steady-state rolling are used to predict rolling losses in the tyre. Rolling resistance is calculated for a series of different tyre/road combinations. Results are compared with rolling resistance measurements. The agreement between simulations and measurements is generally very good. It is found that both the tyre structure and small-scale tread deformations contribute to the rolling losses. The small-scale contribution depends mainly on the road roughness profile. The mean profile depth of the road surface is identified to correlate very well with the rolling resistance. Additional calculations are performed for non-traditional rubberised road surfaces, however, with mixed results. This possibly indicates the existence of additional loss mechanisms for these surfaces.

rolling resistance

numerical modelling

tyre/road interaction

contact modelling

Author

Carsten Hoever

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Wolfgang Kropp

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Journal of Sound and Vibration

0022-460X (ISSN) 1095-8568 (eISSN)

Vol. 351 161-176

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Transport

Building Futures (2010-2018)

Energy

Subject Categories

Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics

DOI

10.1016/j.jsv.2015.04.009

More information

Latest update

11/21/2018