Advanced Tire Coefficient Characteristics for Improved Vehicle Dynamics Models

The objective of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility of developing test systems and procedure to quantify the tire parameters necessary to accurately model the performance of Army wheeled vehicles. The Army currently has a large fleet ofwheeled vehicles and is embarking on programs to develop several new-wheeled vehicles that will play critical combat roles. It is fundamentally important that models are available that have the capability to accurately simulate performance of thesevehicles under a wide range of circumstances. It is crucial that these new vehicles are developed as rapidly as possible and that they perform as required. As has been well learned in the private automotive business sector, the only means to bring suchrapid development programs to a successful conclusion is through the heavy use of computer modeling.This program is directed at defining the required measurement equipment and procedures to provide this vital data on the performance of the tires on which the Army's vehicles will depend. The final result of this program will be a state-of-the-art tire test system. It will run all the required test procedures to fully characterize a tire for modeling. No such complete test system currently exists. Many modelers currently rely on datacollected from several different tests including in some cases vehicle tests.The most important result at the completion of this is that the Army will have the ability to generate all the parameters needed to represent the tire in their vehicle models.