Model-Based Investigation of the Influence of Wheel Suspension Characteristics on Tire Wear

Abstract

The amount of a vehicle’s tire wear depends on several factors, such as material properties of the tire, environmental factors, driving behavior and especially the interaction between wheel suspension and wheel. While driving, the wheel has a defined setting to the road, which is given by the kinematic and compliance characteristics of the wheel suspension. This study takes an isolated look at wheel suspension characteristics with respect to tire wear. A flexible multibody simulation model of a multi-link rear axle is built up in MSC Adams/View to analyze the influence of wheel suspension parameters on the tire footprint. This model consists of a combination of flexible and rigid bodies and nonlinear connection elements like rubber metal bushings. The simulation model is enhanced by two FTire tire models, which is a widely used commercial physically based, 3D nonlinear flexible structure tire model. It was chosen because it has a separate tire tread model to compute the contact pressure and friction force distribution in the tire contact patch. To apply road excitation, a two-dimensional road model with a stochastic road profile is used. Various wheel suspension kinematics were set up and their influence on tire wear examined.