Lack of drivers knowledge about the abrupt changes in pavement friction and poor performance of the vehicle stability, traction and ABS controllers on the low friction surfaces are the most important factors affecting car crashes. Due to its direct relation to vehicle stability, accurate estimation of tire-road characteristics is of interest to all vehicle and tire companies. Many studies have been conducted in this field and researchers have used different tools and have proposed different algorithms. One such concept is the Intelligent Tire. The application of intelligent tire in tire-road characterization is investigated in this study. Three different test setups were used in this research to study the application of the intelligent tires to improve mobility; first, a wheeled ground robot was designed and built. A Fuzzy Logic algorithm was developed and validated using the robot for classifying different road surfaces such as asphalt, concrete, grass, and soil. The second test setup is a portable tire testing trailer, which is a quarter car test rig installed in a trailer and towed by a truck. The trailer was equipped with different sensors including an accelerometer attached to the center of the tire inner-liner. Using the trailer, acceleration data was collected under varying conditions and a Neural Network (NN) algorithm was developed and trained to estimate the contact patch length, effective tire rolling radius and tire normal load. The third test setup developed for this study was an instrumented Volkswagen Jetta. Different sensors were installed to measure vehicle dynamic response. Additionally, one front and one rear tire was instrumented with an accelerometer attached to their inner-liner. Two intelligent tire based algorithms, a tire pressure estimation algorithm and a road condition monitoring algorithm, were developed and trained using the experimental data from the instrumented VW Jetta. The two-step pressure monitoring algorithm uses the acceleration signal from the intelligent tire and the wheel angular velocity to monitor the tire pressure. Also, wet and dry surfaces are distinguished using the acceleration signal from the intelligent tire and the wheel angular velocity through the surface monitoring algorithm. Some of the model based tire-road friction estimation algorithms, which are widely used for tire-road friction estimation, were also introduced in this study and the performance of each algorithm was evaluated in high slip and low slip maneuvers. Finally a new friction estimation algorithm was developed, which is a combination of experiment based and vehicle dynamic based approaches and its performance was also investigated. / PHD / Lack of driver’s knowledge about the abrupt changes in pavement friction and poor performance of the vehicle stability, traction and ABS controllers on the low friction surfaces are the most important factors affecting car crashes. Due to its direct relation to vehicle stability, accurate estimation of tire-road characteristics is of interest to all vehicle and tire companies. Many studies have been conducted in this field and researchers have used different tools and have proposed different algorithms. One such concept is the Intelligent Tire. The application of intelligent tire in tire-road characterization is investigated in this study. Five main algorithms are developed in this study. First a fuzzy-logic terrain classification algorithm is developed for the small wheeled ground robot that classifies all different surfaces into four known categories; asphalt, concrete, sand and grass. A six-wheel grand robot was designed and built for this study and instrumented with intelligent tire, a tri-axial accelerometer embedded to the tire inner-liner, and other appropriate sensors. The input of the terrain classification algorithm are the intelligent tire signal, the slip ratio at the beginning of the motion and the wheel speed. The second algorithm is an intelligent tire based algorithm to estimate the tire normal load. A portable tire testing trailer, which is a quarter car test rig attached to the back of the trailer and towed by a truck was used for this part of the project. The trailer test setup was instrumented with different sensors and the tire normal load was controlled through a pneumatic force transducer and an air-spring system. A Neural Network algorithm was then trained that estimates the tire normal load using intelligent tire signal, the tire pressure and the wheel speed. The third and fourth algorithm are intelligent tire based algorithms to monitor the tire pressure and the road surface condition respectively. An instrumented vehicle, which was a Volkswagen Jetta 2003, was prepared and used for this part of the project. The inputs of these algorithms were the intelligent tire signal and the wheel speed and the outputs were the tire pressure condition and road surface condition (dry/ wet) respectively. The last algorithm is a new friction estimation algorithm, which is a combination of experiment based (intelligent tire) and vehicle dynamic based approaches. The algorithm is validated with the experimental data collected using the trailer test setup.

Tire-pavement interaction noise is one of the dominant sources of vehicle noise, and one of the most significant sources of urban noise pollution. One critical generation mechanism of tire-pavement interaction noise is tire tread excitation. The tire tread contributes to the tire-pavement interaction noise mainly through two mechanisms: (1) tread block impact, and (2) the compression and expansion of the air in the tread groove at the contact patch. The tread pattern is the critical part of the tire design since it can be easily modified. Hence, the main focus of this study is to quantify the tread pattern contribution in total tire-pavement interaction noise. To achieve this goal, the noise produced by the tread pattern is separated from the total tire-pavement interaction noise. Since the tread pattern excitation is periodic with tire rotation, the noise produced by the tread is assumed to be related to the tire rotation. Hence, the order domain synchronous averaging method is used in this study to separate and quantify the tread pattern contribution to the total tire-pavement interaction noise. The experiment has been carried out using an On-Board-Sound-Intensity (OBSI) system. Five tires were tested including the Standard Reference Test Tire (SRTT). Compared to the conventional OBSI system, an optical sensor was added to the system to monitor the tire rotation. The once per revolution signal provided by the optical sensor is used to identify the noise signals associate to each revolution. In addition to the averaging method using optical signals, other data processing techniques have been investigated for separating the tread-pattern noise without utilizing the once per revolution signal. These techniques are autocorrelation analysis, a frequency domain filter, principal component analysis, and independent component analysis. In the tread-pattern noise generation, the tread profile is the most important input parameter. To characterize the tread profile, the tread pattern spectral content and air volume velocity spectral content for all the five tires are computed. Then, the tread pattern spectrum and the air volume velocity spectrum are both correlated with the separated tread-pattern noise by visual inspection of the spectra shape. / Master of Science / Tire-pavement interaction noise is one of the dominant sources of vehicle noise, and one of the most significant sources of urban noise pollution. One critical generation mechanism of tirepavement interaction noise is tire tread (the part that is in contact with the ground on the surface of the tire) excitation. This type of noise is called the tread-pattern noise. This study is dedicated to separating the tread-pattern noise from the total tire-pavement interaction noise, which has not been reported in the open literature. The separation of the tread-pattern noise can provide critical criteria for the tread-pattern acoustic design, which is one of the most important factors in the tire tread pattern design. Hence, the acoustic design of the tread pattern can be evaluated directly from the tread-pattern noise measurement, thus improving the design efficiency. In addition, the standalone study on the tread-pattern noise can reveal more fundamental physical underpins how the geometry of the tread can affect the noise generated. This finding has the potential to inspire the design of the tires with higher acoustic performance over the tires being used currently.

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Obtaining the modal parameters of a deflected and rolling tire represents a challenge due to the complex vibration characteristics that cause the tire's symmetry distortion and the natural frequencies' bifurcation phenomena. The modal parameters are usually extracted using a detailed finite element model. The main issue with full modal models (FEA, for example) is the inability to integrate the tire modal model with the vehicle models to tune the suspension system for optimal ride comfort. An in-plane rigid–elastic-coupled tire model was used to examine the 200 DOF finite difference method (FDM) modal analysis accuracy under non-ground contact and non-rotating conditions. The discrete in-plane rigid–elastic-coupled tire model was modified to include the contact patch restriction, centrifugal force, Doppler, and Coriolis effects, covering a range of 0-300 Hz. As a result, the influence of the contact patch and the rotating tire conditions on the natural frequencies and modes were obtained through modal analysis. The in-plane rigid–elastic-coupled modal model with varying conditions was created that connects any two DOFs around the tire's tread or sidewall as inputs or outputs. The vertical movement of the wheel was incorporated into the in-plane rigid–elastic-coupled tire modal model to extract the transfer function (TF) that connects road irregularities as an input to the wheel's vertical movement as an output. The TF was utilized in a quasi-static manner to obtain the tire's enveloping characteristics rolling over short wavelength obstacles as a direct function of vertical wheel displacement under varying contact patch length constraints. The tire modal model was implemented with the quarter car model to obtain the vehicle response rolling over short wavelength obstacles. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was performed to examine the influence of tire parameters and pretension forces on natural frequencies. / Doctor of Philosophy / The goal of vehicle manufacturers is to predict the vehicle's behavior under various driving conditions using mathematical models and simulation. Automotive companies rely heavily on computational simulation tools instead of real-time tests to shorten the product development cycle and reduce costs. However, the interaction between the tire and the road is one of the most critical aspects to consider when evaluating automobile stability and performance. The tires are responsible for generating the forces and moments that drive and maneuver the vehicle. Tires are complex products due to their intricate design, and their characteristics are affected by many factors such as vertical load, inflation pressure, speed, and a road with an uneven surface profile. Consequently, this project aims to describe the influence of various driving circumstances and load conditions on tire properties, as well as to develop a model that can represent the vertical tire and vehicle behavior while traveling over a cleat under different vehicle loads.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Rubber is the main component of the pneumatic tire. When rubber is put under cyclic loading, like when a tire is rolled, heat is generated and stored in the rubber, due to hysteresis. Heat stored in the tire is increased by factors like under-inflation, overloading, speeding and defects in the tire. The heat causes high temperatures in the tire due to the poor thermal conductivity of rubber. When the temperature in the rubber increases to 185 °C, pyrolysis and thermo-oxidation starts and can cause the tire to eventually explode. A numerical model of a rolling passenger vehicle tire was developed to calculate the temperature distribution inside the tire and analyse the effect of different operating conditions on the temperature. Operating conditions include loading, inflation pressure, rolling velocity and ambient temperature. The tire was modelled by a single rubber type, using the Mooney-Rivlin material model. The bead wire was modelled using an isotropic material model, while the body and steel cord plies were modelled as rebars. The cavity, used to inflate the tire, included the pressure increase due to the volume change, when the tire is loaded. The numerical model was validated using experimental data from tests done on an actual tire. These tests included deformation and contact stress analysis, as well as surface temperature measurements. Numerical results showed an increase in temperature when the load, rolling velocity and the ambient temperature were increased, as well as when the inflation pressure was decreased. The trends of the numerical data matched the trends of the experimental data. However, the values of the numerical model were not consistent with the experimental data due to material properties from literature being used to model the tire. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Rubber is die hoofkomponent in die pneumatiese band. As rubber onder ’n sikliese las geplaas word, soos wanneer ’n band rol, word hitte gegenereer en in die rubber gestoor as gevolg van histerese. Die hitte wat in die band gestoor word, word verhoog deur faktore soos lae inflasiedruk, hoë las, hoë rol snelhede en gebreke in die band. Die hitte veroorsaak hoë temperature in die band weens die swak termiese geleiding van rubber. As die temperatuur in die band hoër as 185 °C raak, vind piroliese en termo-oksidasie plaas en die band kan uiteindelik ontplof. ’n Numeriese model van ’n passasiersmotorband is ontwikkel om die temperatuurverspreiding te bepaal, asook om die effek van verskillende werkstoestande op die temperatuur te analiseer. Die band is gemodelleer met een tipe rubber en die Mooney-Rivlin materiaal-model is gebruik om die rubber te beskryf. Die spanrand van die band is deur ’n isotropiese materiaalmodel gemodelleer, terwyl die hoof- en staalkoordlae as bewapening gemodelleer is. Die holte wat gebruik word om die band op te blaas, neem die druk toename as gevolg van die verandering in volume in ag wanneer die band belas word. Die numeriese model was bekragtig met eksperimentele data wat deur toetse op ’n werklike band onttrek is. Die toetse sluit die volgende in: vervormingen kontakspanninganalises, asook temperature wat op die oppervlak van die band gemeet is. Die numeriese resultate toon ’n toename in temperatuur wanneer die las, rolsnelheid en omgewingstemperatuur verhoog word, asook waneer die inflasiedruk verlaag word. Die numeriese model se tendense stem ooreen met die eksperimentele data, maar die waardes van die numeriese model is nie in ooreenstemmig met die eksperimentele data nie. Die verskil is as gevolg van die materiaaleienskappe wat uit die literatuur geneem is.

Orientador: Jorge Luís Akasaki / Banca: Jefferson Sidney Camacho / Banca: Armando Lopes Moreno Júnior / Resumo: O presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar algumas propriedades de concretos e argamassas, com substituição parcial do agregado miúdo por resíduos de borracha de pneus provenientes do processo de recauchutagem. Para todas as misturas foi utilizado o cimento CP V - ARI PLUS, areia e, para os concretos, brita basáltica. As substituições foram de 12% em volume do agregado miúdo por borracha para argamassa e 10% em volume para concreto. Em argamassa procurou-se verificar a influência do tratamento do resíduo de borracha com solução saturada de hidróxido de sódio. As propriedades estudadas foram: resistência à compressão, resistência à tração, absorção de água e índice de consistência. As propriedades analisadas em concreto à temperatura ambiente foram: resistência à compressão, absorção de água, resistência à tração, resistência à abrasão, módulo de elasticidade e resistência à flexão. Em concreto aquecido a 600ºC, avaliaram-se as propriedades de resistência à compressão e módulo de elasticidade. Os resultados obtidos em argamassas, após o tratamento do resíduo, mostram que este não influencia nas propriedades estudadas. Também é observado, após a substituição de parte do agregado pelo resíduo, queda na trabalhabilidade e nos resultados referentes à resistência mecânica. Os resultados de resistência à abrasão em concreto mostram-se interessantes para o uso da mistura em pavimentação. Após o aquecimento do concreto, observa-se redução na resistência à compressão e módulo de elasticidade para as misturas com e sem borracha. Também é observado que as relações de perda de resistência entre o concreto com e sem borracha são mantidas após o aquecimento. / Abstract: The aim of this work is to study some properties of mortars and concretes, whose fine aggregate was partially replaced by tire rubber from retreading process. It was used in all mixes CPV - ARI PLUS cement, river sand, and basaltic coarse aggregate. The replacement was made in volume of fine aggregate by tire rubber and it was 12% in mortars and 10% in concrete. The influence of the residue's treatment with a sodium hydroxide saturated solution was analyzed through tests in mortar. The studied properties were: compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, water absorption, and consistence index. The properties analyzed in concrete at room temperature were: compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and flexural tensile strength. The tests made at 600ºC heated concrete were compressive strength and modulus of elasticity. The results from mortars tests, after the rubber's treatment, show that it doesn't influence considerably the studied properties. It is also observed that after the replacement of part of the aggregate by tire rubber; there is a decrease in workability and mechanical tests results. The abrasion resistance tests results show that an interesting use to tire rubber concrete is in precast-concrete paving brick. It can be noted from the heated concrete results that compressive strength and modulus of elasticity decrease in mixes with and without tire rubber. It could be also seen that the relationship between concrete strength losses are kept after heating. / Mestre

The objective of this study is to integrate a continuum-based deformable tire and terrain interaction model into a general-use physics-based simulation environment capable of off-road vehicle mobility analysis and high-performance computing potential. Specifically, the physics-based deformable tire and terrain models which were recently proposed and validated by Yamashita, et al. will be implemented into the structure of the multi-physics simulation engine Chrono. In off-road vehicle mobility analysis, empirical and analytical models have been commonly used for vehicle-terrain interaction. While these models utilize experimental data or terramechanics theories to create quick predictive mobility models, they are unable to capture the highly nonlinear behavior of soft soil deformation, which can lead to inaccurate or unreliable results. In order to resolve these limitations, the use of physics-based numerical approaches have been proposed. These methods make use of finite element and discrete element simulations to describe the interaction between the vehicle and deformable terrain. Continuum-based finite element models transfer tire forces to the terrain and model the deformation with elasto-plastic constitutive models. Discrete element soil uses a large number of small rigid body particles to describe the microscale behavior of granular terrain, with the deformation of the soil represented by the motion and contact of the particles. While these physics-based models offer a more accurate vehicle-terrain interaction model, the solution procedure can become complex and computationally expensive since co-simulation techniques are often used. To address these issues, the analysis of physics-based full vehicle dynamics simulations utilizing high-fidelity deformable tire and terrain models in a multi-physics engine with high-performance computing capability is desired. To this end, a continuum mechanics based shear deformable laminated composite shell element proposed by Yamashita, et al. was integrated into the flexible body dynamics simulation framework of Chrono. This element was based on the absolute nodal coordinate formulation and is defined by the global position coordinates and the transverse gradient coordinates of its four nodes. Element lockings are eliminated with the incorporation of the enhanced assumed strain (EAS) and assumed natural strain approaches (ANS). The element formulation includes an extension to model laminated composite materials. Additionally, a locking-free 9-node brick element was integrated into the Chrono framework that makes use of the curvature coordinates at the center of the element. This element is formulated with the Hencky strain measure such that multiplicative finite strain plasticity theory can be used to incorporate soil plasticity models, such as the capped Drucker-Prager failed criterion. With the shear deformable laminated composite shell element and plastic soil brick element integrated into the Chrono multi-physics simulation engine, an off-road deformable tire and terrain interaction model was developed using the vehicle dynamics simulation module Chrono::Vehicle. An off-road deformable tire model was parameterized based on commercial tire properties and generated as an interchangeable tire model option in the full vehicle dynamics system. Benchmark verification tests were performed to ensure the accuracy of tire deformation and tire force characteristics. Further tests were performed to validate a deformable tire model with a deformable tread pattern constructed from shear deformable shell elements and co-rotational tetrahedral elements. The deformable soil model was also integrated as a terrain option in Chrono::Vehicle and numerical tests were carried out to demonstrate its interaction with rigid and deformable tire models. To make use of the computational performance enhancements available in Chrono, Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP) and Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) were applied to the evaluation of the elastic force/Jacobian matrix and large matrix operations of flexible bodies, respectively, in order to reduce the computation time by nearly 60%.

<p>Vehicle simulators are becoming more common in vehicle industries. Company earns lot of money on simulations instead of real tests. Real tests are necessary but not made so extensively as before.</p><p>In this thesis the building of an vehice simulator will be described and a comparison between three different cruise controls. The three cruise controls are PI-regulator, a regulator who regulates after positions in the terrain and a MPC-regulator. The reason for choosing this three is to see the difference between simple regulation and more complex regulation with respect to fuel consumption, travel time and complexity.</p><p>The vehicle simulator is made in Matlab/Simulink, Visual Studio and Open Scene Graph. The facilities needed for runnning the simulator is a relative good computer with a grapics card on at least 128 MB RAM plus a steering wheel and pedals for brake and gas to achieve best feeling. A keyboard can be used but it reduces almost all feeling.</p><p>After several simulations a conclusion was made. The MPC-regulator was the regulator who consumed least fuel and travel time. The regulator who regulates after positions in the terrain was not too far away. It would be interesting to do more research about it. In fact it is only a PI-regulator who makes ``clever'' decisions when a hill with enough slope appears. With enough slope means a downhill where the vehicle can accelerate without the use of fuel and an uphill where the vehicle can not keep its speed with maximum use of fuel.</p><p>A conclusion was stated that the friction and height profile influenced on settings for the PI-regulator and with some adjustments on this settings, fuel could be saved.</p>

Tire bales have become an innovative and cost effective fill material that can be used for the construction of geotechnical structures, like embankments for highway projects. The mechanical and physical properties they present allow them to be suitable for this type of structures, as long as they are provided with an appropriate drainage system. Stability of these structures is controlled by the interface shear strength existing in the contact surfaces between the bales. However, the tire bale has a jagged, uneven and highly variable surface and it presents a number of irregular tire ridges with random dimensions that are difficult to quantify. Due to the flexibility of these ridges, deformation of the interface occurs when a horizontal shear load is applied, and following this deformation the actual displacement of the interface takes place. Freilich (2009) performed large scale tests in the field and in the laboratory to observe the behavior of the whole tire bale structure, which is composed of the tire bale mass and the tire bale interface. Due to the irregular and highly variable surface of the tire bale, the deformations that occur on the ridges along the interface cannot be directly measured and quantified. Following similar concepts of some rock mechanic models, Freilich characterized the tire ridge interface using three parameters and came up with a model. Using these parameters, an ideal interface was constructed where the variability was reduced by incorporating a known geometry, and it can still be characterized in the same manner as that for the tire bale interface. Loads, deformations and displacements occurring along the interface were measured and recorded. From this data, shear strength parameters are defined and incorporated into Freilich’s tire ridge interface model that is used to predict the geometric and mechanical behavior of the irregular ridges controlling the interface shear strength. The behavior predicted from the model is then compared to the recorded data representing the actual geometric and mechanical behavior of the interface with known geometry, where the deformations on the asperities are approximated. This comparison verifies that the consideration of the flexibility from the tire ridges is not entirely described by the tire ridge interface model. Therefore a possible modification, based on the observations recorded, could be found. / text

The first essay examines the relation between fund performance and stock selection process. I classify mutual funds into two groups according to their distinctive stock selection approaches: tire kickers who rely on fund managers' personal judgment and fundamental analysis to pick stocks, and quant jocks who use computer-based models to select stocks. I examine how the stock selection approach affects mutual fund performance and economies of scale. I document an increasing trend of quantitative techniques used by mutual funds, in addition to some unique characteristics of quant jocks. Quant jocks and tire kickers have similar factor-adjusted alphas, but quant jocks have higher Sharpe ratios. Quant jocks tend to be much smaller than tire kickers. I explore possible explanations for the size difference. I find that although quant jocks can cheaply screen a large universe of stocks, the stocks that quant jocks invest in are smaller and less liquid, which results in higher transaction costs and limited scalability of quantitative investment strategies. The second essay investigates mutual fund managers' private information about future stock returns as revealed in their portfolio holdings. Specifically, we develop three different stock alpha estimators to predict stock returns based on portfolio compositions and past performance of mutual funds. We find that investment strategies based on our stock alpha estimators perform well, when using information on recent fund holdings and fund purchases. This evidence suggests that fund managers' stock selection skills are quite persistent, and vary widely in the cross-section. We also compare our strategies with 12 quantitative investment signals based on market anomalies, and find that our strategies are not subsumed by these quantitative signals. Thus, our stock alpha estimators reflect private skills of active fund managers that are unrelated to known anomalies. Finally, we develop a conditional stock alpha estimator using information on stock characteristics and fund characteristics. Investment strategies based on the conditional stock alphas deliver further improved performance.