Tire Mass Imbalance, Rolling Phase Difference, Non-Uniformity Induced Force Difference, and Inflation Pressure Change Effects on Steering Wheel Vibration

This study aims to investigate both shimmy (also known as nibble) and shake of a steering wheel excited by tire wheel imbalance and non-uniformities. In this context, we perform several indoor experiments and analyze them from the viewpoints of mass imbalance, a rolling phase and non-uniformity induced external force difference between front wheels, and an inflation pressure change. As a result, the static and the couple imbalance of the tire show high correlation with the shimmy and have little correlation with the shake. In addition, the shimmy increases in proportion to the rolling phase and non-uniformity induced force difference; both shake and shimmy show high correlation with inflation pressure.