Ride Comfort Evaluation of Bias Ply and Radial Run - Flat Tire in High Mobility Vehicle

Ride comfort is used to describe the degree of human comfort offered by a moving vehicle. The tire plays a major role in determining ride comfort of a vehicle because in practice almost all the forces and moments acting on a vehicle are generated by the tires.

In this paper detailed study regarding various technical aspects of bias ply and radial run flat tires had been carried out. After experimental evaluation of dynamic characteristics of tires, ride comfort of test vehicle is investigated. Ride comfort characteristics such as ride quality and vertical acceleration RMS are evaluated and presented in time domain. The data had been collected with a high mobility vehicle with bias ply and radial run flat tires at various speeds on straight and Belgium Pave test track. Tire characteristics significantly affect the ride properties of the vehicle and dominate vehicle response. The final outcome of this test is a comparative study of both tires to bring out the significance of tire characteristics on total vehicle ride comfort.