The Effect of Tire Models on Durability Performance of Vehicle Body Structure: Statistical Analysis

Vehicle design is an iterative process with limited information available during the early design stages. However, vehicle design and performance tests such as crashworthiness, noise, vibration & harshness (NVH) and durability can now be conducted using CAE methods, providing useful insight into the vehicle design process prior to prototype development. A concept Low-mass vehicle (LMV) was initiated by the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UMD) and is in its early design stage. It is targeted to 30% weight reduction compared to class-B vehicle with similar performance characteristics.

A full vehicle MBD (Multibody Dynamic) model was developed and simulated using ADAMS to generate road load history, on various road surfaces with the application of FTire and MF-Tire tire models. The significance of the tire model and its modeling technique was identified by observations on quantitative values such as component fatigue life rather than road-load history itself. This paper takes a statistical approach to study the influence of the analytical tire models on vehicle body durability analysis.