INVESTIGATION OF THE TIRE/PAVEMENT INTERACTION MECHANISM: PHASE III FINAL REPORT. VOLUME 1: TIRE/PAVEMENT CONTACT FORCE MODELING

The interaction mechanism of heavy vehicle tires with road surface pavement is developed as a force, excitation, response problem. Results are presented in three volumes which report tire/pavement contact pressures, structural vibration response, and surface vibration acoustic modeling methods, respectively. The results of each report provide detailed information that may be utilized for tire/pavement evaluation by the methods developed in the subsequent reports. In this report, Volume 1, an efficient algorithm is derived and validated for the evaluation of road surface contact pressure, contact length, depth of tire penetration, and deformed tire geometry. A detailed description of pavement geometry and the tire inflation pressure are the only requirements for input to the analysis. The resulting pressure profile spectral energy is analyzed for correlation with noise spectra and pavement skid number. Results show that pavement textures characterized by dimensions of less than 10 mm (0.39 in.) act to reduce tire noise and to increase skid resistance. The texture-induced contact forces are combined with tread-induced forces to predict time-dependent contact pressures throughout the tire footprint.