Abstract
From a traffic safety point of view, there is an urgent need for intelligent tires which can optimize braking control by estimating the slip ratio and friction coefficient between road surface and tire. In previous studies, we have proposed an application of strain data for estimating a friction coefficient. However, it only investigated the condition when the vertical or frictional loads changed but the other load remained constant. Since both of the frictional and vertical loads alter the measured strain data, an independent applied load estimation method is needed. This study develops a concurrent method for estimating the frictional and vertical loads applied to the tires from the measured strain data when both loads change. The method decomposes the measured circumferential strain to the frictional and vertical strain components using their symmetrical and anti-symmetrical characteristics. FEM analysis is used for simulating tire deformation under various wheel loads and braking torques and the relationship between the strain distribution at the sensing point and the applied loads are calculated. When the estimated and true applied loads were compared, it was confirmed that the vertical and frictional loads can be estimated independently from the circumferential strain with sufficient accuracy. Using this method, one can represent the slip slope curve during driving, which enables the optimization of vehicle control and implementation of a road condition warning system.
