One vehicle subassembly that is of great importance to automobile manufacturers for tuning final vehicle performance is the pneumatic tire. Pneumatic tires present themselves as unique tuning tools as they (1) are the sole link between the roadway surface and the integrated vehicle suspension, chassis and steering systems, and (2) provide a wide range of tunability over many vehicle performances, including handling (steering feel as well as chassis dynamics), traction (braking, driving, and cornering), and ride comfort (roadway isolation). Therefore the vehicle manufacturing industry continues to research and refine various aspects of tire modeling to improve up-front integrated tire/vehicle CAE/CAD model fidelity over a wide range of operating conditions.;Because tires are highly complex, nonlinear, viscous-elastic composite structures they prove to be difficult to accurately model over their entire operating range. As a result, vehicle and tire manufacturers continue to work with relatively simple models that adequately represent the tire for the integrated vehicle performance over an operating regime of interest. This paper evaluates several simple tire models in order to compare their relative advantages and applicability. One of the tire models being compared is a new embodiment in MatLab Simulink of a rigid ring tire model designed for ride comfort modeling of low-frequency and moderate amplitude roadway inputs, and whose data file is capable of being populated quickly using inexpensive standardized laboratory test methods. In addition to the aforementioned tire models, several iterations of an F-Tire tire model are interfaced with Intec's SIMPACK multi-body simulation software as an industry reference.
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