Analyzing The Relationship Between The Road Surface Roughness an‎d Vertical Loading On Automotive Wheels

The significance of the contact force between the vehicle’s tires and the road surface is two-folded. Firstly, the contact force is an important input parameter required to calculate the vertical loading onto the vehicle’s parts. Secondly, the contact force also determines the damaging impact of vehicle’s weight onto the road surface. Therefore, the understanding of the contact force between the vehicle’s tires and the road surface is essential the design of both the vehicle and the road. This paper presents an analytical approach to calculate this contact force. The study includes a 7 degrees-of-freedom vehicle dynamics model. MATLAB Simulink is used to solve for the contact forces at four wheels of the vehicle. The analytical approach is then experimentally verified by using strain gauge at the vehicle’s wheels during its operation. This analytical approach can be useful in reducing the time and effort comparing to the experimental approach.