Lateral Force versus Tire Angle Measurements for Various Field Conditions

The relationship between tire lateral force and slip angle is of interest to vehicle simulation developers and vehicle design engineers. Lateral force data on a variety of surfaces can not be obtained with the traditional laboratory test technique of an instrumented tire on a moving belt surface. This paper describes how the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory's (CRREL) Instrumented Vehicle (CIV) was used in a unique configuration to measure tire lateral force versus tire slip angle values on ice, snow and soil surfaces.

The data collected show that peak lateral force and the shape of the lateral force versus slip angle curve are related to snow properties, depth and soil type. This paper continues from our previous work of lateral force versus slip angle for winter surfaces. This paper adds wet gravel and pea stone soil surfaces. The different shapes of the lateral coefficient slip angle curves for each loose surface are presented along with how we are using these in our vehicle simulation research.