EVALUATION OF TIRE/ROAD FRICTION PERFORMANCE MODELS FROM ON-SITE MEASUREMENTS

Frictional forces between tire and road surface transmitted to the vehicle are determinant on the dynamic site of this vehicle. In vehicle dynamic simulation, if the tire model is not appropriate for the operating conditions even a very good vehicle model would lead to invalid results. The question is of primordial importance in the three following cases: (1) vehicle accident reconstruction; (2) advanced vehicle motion control; (3) analysis of road/vehicle dynamics adequacy. It is well known that road tests are the most relevant way to get right data. Road tests in question are those performed with special devices. These devices are only known by tire manufacturers and moreover can hardly be used on trafficked roads. So the only way to tackle the matter is to make use of data obtained from tests using trailer (longitudinal friction performances) and/or instrumented vehicles (both longitudinal and transversal friction performance). LCPC is addressing this problem since November 1998. The objective is to define road tests and data processing to obtain a method to get acceptable tire models.