Data Acquisition and Parameterization Procedure for Large, Off-Road Tires.

Vehicle dynamic simulations play a significant role in the design and development process of off-road vehicles. These simulations use various tire models to describe the forces, which are generated in the contact patch, that act on the vehicle. Over the last decade researchers have developed a large number of tire models for this purpose. Many of these tire models require experimental test data to be used in the parameterisation process.  Acquiring the required test data, with sufficient accuracy, is often the biggest challenge in the parameterisation process. In most cases obtaining the parameterisation data is the most time consuming and resource intensive operation of the whole parameterisation process.

Many parameterisation processes relay heavily on the use of so called “tire test rigs”. These rigs are however often pushed to the limits to get the required results. The parameterisation process gets complicated even more with an increase in tyre size. Large off-road tires, typically used in the construction or military environment, cannot be tested on these conventional tyre test rigs.

This paper discusses different mathematical tire models and specifies the parameterisation data they require.  Different methods and approaches to acquire the parameterisation data for models of large off-road tires are investigated. The paper highlights the challenges and effort required to obtain the required parameterisation data for large tires and makes recommendations for suitable procedures.