A Method for Tire Damping Evaluation Based on a Free Fall Test and Image Processing
摘要
The estimation of the tire damping coefficient is a fundamental topic in several fields, including vehicle dynamics, ride comfort, suspensions design or modeling and the overall vehicle stability. This paper presents an innovative approach for the damping coefficient evaluation with a non-contact methodology. A video of the vertical free fall of the tire from a specific height is acquired and through an image processing procedure the kinematics of the center of mass is extracted. The differential equations of the acquired motion are solved to estimate the damping coefficient. This innovative approach, thus, reveals how starting from a simple experiment combined with an image processing procedure it is possible to estimate the damping coefficient and it enhances the understanding of how the tire inflation pressure influences the coefficient itself.