Measurements and simulations of rolling resistance to enable energy optimisation of vehicle-road interaction

Industrial (VTI) PhD student: Lisa Ydrefors
Started: 2018

The main resistive forces for vehicles to overcome are aerodynamics, inertia, internal friction and rolling resistance. Reducing the rolling resistance for future vehicle designs creates a possibility to reduce the energy consumption and thereby making the future vehicles more economical as well as ecological. When optimising for reduced rolling resistance contradictory requirements such as force generation for maintaining safety and performance, as well as the road surface need to be taken into account. The objectives are: to establish a credible measurement method for rolling resistance on flat road under controlled conditions (lab environment), to create a simulation model of tyre rolling resistance and friction forces for vehicle dynamics simulations, to validate the developed model by measurements and finally to perform optimisation studies by assuming the innovative vehicle concept that for each wheel one can control traction, braking and wheel angles (wheel corner modules).