Transient tyre modelling for the simulation of drivetrain dynamic response under low-to-zero speed traction manoeuvres

The work presented in this thesis is dedicated to the study of transient tyre dynamics and how these influence the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle and its driveline, with the main focus being on low-to-zero speed manoeuvres such as pull-away events. The bulk of the work focuses on the amalgamation of the hitherto disparate fields of driveline modelling and detailed tyre modelling. Several tyre models are employed and their relative advantages and disadvantages analysed. The observed dynamic behaviour is correlated to the inherent structure of each tyre model in order for the most appropriate for driveline studies to be identified. The main simulation studies are split into two parts: the first comprises a study into isolated driveline dynamics; where the yaw, pitch and roll behaviours of the vehicle body are neglected. A relatively detailed driveline model with an open differential is used with tyre models of increasing complexity with the aim of determining when increased model detail fails to increase the accuracy of the results. The second part is concerned with the study of how the dynamics of the vehicle body and suspension affect tyre model performance and associated effects on the driveline behaviour. For this, the driveline and tyre models are incorporated into a full six degree-of-freedom vehicle model with full suspension effects. Frequency migration on low-μ surfaces is successfully explained via the decoupling of the vehicle and driveline inertias. Frequencies observed in FFT analyses of the simulation results correspond to those obtained through eigen-analysis of appropriately modified state-space models with varying degrees of coupling that reflect the vehicle travelling on uniform low- or split-μ surfaces. The main finding of the thesis is that this decoupling theory can also be applied to high-speed take-off manoeuvres, as it is the position along the tyre slip-force curve that dictates decoupling; i.e. if the curve has saturated. This leads to the effective traction stiffness being zero, which modifies the equations of motion and subsequently the system eigenvalues. A series of measurements are taken in order to verify the findings from the simulation work. Manoeuvres analogous to those simulated are carried out. It is found that only the simulation of split-μ conditions is necessary, as the results from the low-μ test show a similar pattern to those seen on the split-μ surface.