Instrumented Car Responses during Obstacle Envelopment by Rolling Tires

Experimental studies were carried out to obtain instrumented car responses during impact with a simulated road obstacle. A cleat 2" wide × 0.5" high × 15" long (5.08 cm × 1.27 cm × 38.1 cm) was employed to simulate tar strip-like road irregularities. The tests were conducted both on the roadwheel and on the road. Two automobiles of different weights were used with two different size tires. Test speeds were 30, 50 and 60 mph (48, 80 and 96 kmh). The axle accelerations, the floor acceleration and the interior noise were measured. The time and frequency domain characteristics were determined for all the test data. These results were compared with the resonant characteristics of the tires to determine the tire-car interaction effects towards vibration and noise transmission.