The Application of CAD to Defining the Truck Tire Envelope under Steering and Suspension Articulation

A three dimensional Computer Aided Design (3D CAD) system is used to define the volume of space that the front tire of a heavy truck occupies as it is swept through the full range of steering motion and, to a lesser degree, front suspension articulation. Tire envelopes of this type are used for clearance evaluation in heavy truck design. This paper describes in detail the procedure used within an interactive CAD program to create a tire envelope.