Date of Award

2013

Publication Type

Master Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Mechanical, Automotive, and Materials Engineering

Keywords

Automotive engineering

Supervisor

Bruce Minaker

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

An approach for developing a tire suitable for performing small scale vehicle dynamics research is discussed. This will allow for physical verification of vehicle dynamics modelling and controls in environments where a full scale prototype is either not feasible or too large an investment. Currently, scale vehicle research is limited by the availability of tires on the desired scale, which are typically sourced from the radio controlled (RC) vehicle industry. Use of these tires, however, results in poor similitude between the representative scale vehicle and the full scale vehicle. This is due to variations in the behaviour of the scale tire to the full scale tire. An existing analytical tire model known as the cornering force self-aligning torque model (CF/SAT), is analyzed and modifications to the model are proposed to allow it to be used for non-dimensional tire parameterization. The model is then non-dimensionalized, using Buckingham Pi theory, to allow for comparison of small scale tire performance to large scale tire performance. A static load-deflection tire testing apparatus named the Windsor Automotive Tire Tester (WATT) is also developed. This machine is used to analyze if it is possible to determine the CF/SAT parameters for a given tire without the use of full scale tire dynamic studies and regression analysis. A DUBRO 5.00 T.V. RC airplane tire is then parameterized and modelled using relationships derived from the static tire data. The results of the tire model are compared with experimental data of the DUBRO 5.00 T.V. tire in order to analyze the effectiveness of the approach. It was found that it was possible to estimate some tire parameters using this method, however, more research is required to fully parameterize the tire using static load-deflection data.

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