A Test Machine for the Determination of Tire Energy Dissipation Over Transient Driving Cycles

A flat belt tire test machine is described which was designed to measure tire energy dissipation under conditions simulating a vehicle being driven over a sequence of EPA driving cycles. The machine has two tires loaded against each other across one span of a continuous steel belt running on steel drums. One of the tires is driven by a DC chopper controlled motor programmed to reproduce the speed history of the driving cycles. Tire force and speed voltage signals are multiplied in an analog multiplier and then integrated to find the energy passing into and out of the tires.