Analysis of the Frictional Power Distribution in the Tire Contact Patch considering Suspension Dynamics of a Multi-link Suspension System to Evaluate Tire Wear

The suspension system is one of the most complex and important systems in an automobile and is still challenging during development so that there is need for a systematic enhancement of current simulation methods.

During his PhD Dr.-Ing. Sergej Kohl built up a detailed multibody system of a multi-link suspension, including elastic effects and structural dynamics. The focus was a particular consideration of the interaction of suspension system dynamics and tire-road contact within the development of a numeric methodology for frictional rolling contact analysis. To meet accuracy requirements for high frequency applications, such as road excitations, the amplitude and frequency dependence of components were considered. Furthermore, the proposed flexible viscoelastic suspension model was enhanced by adequate modeling of tire and road, which covers realistic road excitations. For model validation experiments were carried out on components, subsystems and the entire system.

In this way, a model-based analysis of the frictional processes and thus frictional power distribution was made possible inside the contact area under realistic operating conditions. Above all, this facilitates an effective evaluation of the impact of suspension design on the tire-to-road power transfer and the resulting tire tread wear.

The PhD thesis of Dr. Kohl is available here. His Publications are listed here.