Analysis of the influence of the tire pressure on vehicle comfort with the aid of a virtual test rig

Abstract

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Human comfort is one of the main aims of this century due to technological progress. In this context, automotive companies work to ensure this factor for the driver and passengers in any situation. Then, the present paper aims to evaluate the tire pressure (a factor that depends on the vehicle user) effect on vehicle comfort. To do so and with the aid of ISO 2631-1:1997, a virtual model with 14 degrees of freedom was used since it is the one that presents results more consistent with reality. Thus, it was determined the speed of 50km/h of the vehicle traveling on a straight path, without oscillations, and the standard tire model of the software considering five different tire pressures to be analyzed, 14, 20, 26, 32, and 38 psi and to configure and simulate these parameters, a MATLAB/Simulink application was used, the Vehicle Suspension and Tire Analysis. Therefore, for each tire pressure data were collected in the time domain and at the vehicle’s center of mass. The data collected are accelerations in the three directions, X, Y, and Z, and also the moment around the Y axis, to evaluate the yaw effect of the vehicle. Furthermore, a conversion of the acceleration by time to acceleration by frequency was made using a Fast Fourier Transform where it was possible to visualize the excitation points in the human body and correlate the data with the vehicle comfort standard previously mentioned in the face of the different situations studied. As a result, through the analysis of acceleration per time and Y moment per time for other tire pressures results were obtained that characterize situations of discomfort in some specific situations in the trajectory of the vehicle, especially when it comes to lower pressures representing situations of lack of tire maintenance.</div></div>