Processing of Tire Force/Moment Data

Use of tire force/moment data in vehicle simulations requires pre-processing to assure that data are consistent and can be introduced by a straight forward method that does not degrade accuracy. Combined traction/braking and cornering data on a P225/60R-16 tire for a load of 4500 N are processed by calculating a nondimensional resultant force variable as a function of a normalized combined slip variable. “Raw” data curves are reconstructed from mathematical fits to the normalized data. Comparison of these curves with the actual raw data shows reasonable agreement for lateral and longitudinal forces. Some reasons for lack of better agreement are presented.