Virtual Tire Development for New Electric Vehicle through Driver in Loop Approach

In recent years, the push for reduced product development timelines has been more than ever with significant changes in the automotive market. High electrification, intelligent vehicle systems and increased number for car manufacturers are a few key drivers to the same. The front loading of development activities is now a key focus area for achieving faster product development. From vehicle dynamics point of view availability of subjective evaluation feedback plays a key role in optimization various system specifications.

This paper discusses an approach for front loading through parallel development of the tire and vehicle chassis system, using advanced simulation and driving simulator technology. The proposed methodology uses virtual tire models which in combination with real-time vehicle model enables subjective evaluation of vehicle performance in driver-in-loop simulators. Three loops of tire tuning are conducted in virtual vehicle development stage, providing valuable insight of potential of achieving improved vehicle stability using tire characteristics. The vehicle under study inherently exhibits lower yaw stability owing to its architectural characteristics. This exercise enables improvement in vehicle stability performance through tire tuning before any physical build of tire or vehicle prototype. Also, understanding on effect of the tire characteristics on vehicle stability enables to take key trade-off decisions related to various chassis components. The objective measurements of prototype vehicle as well as physical tire validate the virtual models used during the activity.