Method development to analyse the vertical and lateral dynamic road–vehicle interaction of heavy-duty vehicles

Full vehicle simulations and in this context utilized tyre models play in many ways a key role to analyse the vehicle–road interaction. The tyre model requirements are conflicting: on the one hand, the quality of the simulation results is of great significance; on the other hand, the calculation effort increases with the increasing complexity of the model. In this field of research, the DFG Research Group FOR 2089 “Durable pavement constructions for future traffic loads” develops a new modelling approach to depict and analyse dependencies of the road–tyre interaction to increase the simulation quality of road load impacts. Because of high static and dynamic wheel loads of commercial vehicles (CV), these are decisively responsible for the vehicle-induced road load stresses. The high diversity in this vehicle class causes an extreme complexity for modelling and simulating the road load stress using multi-body simulation models. To enable an efficient methodology, a modular and scalable modelling approach for different commercial vehicle classes has been developed. Various vehicle components have been depicted as either rigid or flexible bodies. The result of this research gives an indication of the influence of the level of detail of modelling different components on the calculated wheel loads and the lateral vehicle behaviour. Special focus has been put on the tyre modelling approach. Mathematical tyre models are often used in vehicle dynamics simulations, but due to the simplified assumption of a point contact between the tyre and the road, they reflect the real road load inaccurately. The road–tyre interaction has a big influence on vehicle dynamics (Winkler in Efficient MBS-modelling of commercial vehicle for vertical dynamics simulations and handling simulations, chassis.tech.plus 2016, München, 2016); therefore, it is necessary to reproduce the contact area more accurately. Using a physical tyre model, the tyre–road interaction can be analysed, since this model simulates a pronounced contact patch and enables to analyse the contact pressure distribution. Supported by high-resolution road surface measurements, a methodology has been developed to examine the tyre force transmission potential in the contact patch. Effects of the high-resolution approach on vehicle dynamics have been investigated in order to give valuable input for the sizing and specification of road construction.