Theoretical background for tyres slip angles research

Abstract

The article deals with problems of tyre slip angles and gives a proposal for their experimental determination. It describes the principle of slip angles origin and their influence on directionalstability of road vehicles. The complexity of their mathematical determination is ilustrated ona model situation with utilization of two different theoretical approaches. But the main part of the articleis a theoretical analysis of vehicle turning for the purpose of slip angles determination from experimentally acquired data. The theoretical background described in this article will be used for slipangles evaluation in experiments carried out with an experimental 2-axle vehicle. The vehicle hasbeen designed at the department of transport means and diagnostics and has a variable allwheel drive and all-wheel steering. The experimental vehicle and this theoretical background shouldhelp either to verify the traditional theories supporting principle of slip angles or to ammend themto correspond to type and design of modern tyres. As the final stage of the research the verifiedor ammended theories will be used for creation of an algorithm for rear axle steering in orderto improve directional stability.