Intelligent tyre technologies

Abstract

This thesis reports an investigation about range of intelligent tyre technologies. A piezoelectric transducer was utilized to measure tyre inner liner strain in the longitudinal direction. Tyre driving condition can be recognized from different tyre strain pattern data which is collected from the piezoelectric transducers. Tyre load, slip angle, and rolling speed can be identified from the tyre strain pattern throughout the tyre contact patch area strain pattern. A novel circumferential four-chamber tyre concept was designed, manufactured and tested in this study. These four-chamber prototypes can have independent inflation pressure in each chamber to provide wide range of tyre behavior which is suitable for different road surfaces and driving conditions. The multi-chamber tyre has a range of modes to accommodate urban and motorway driving for rolling resistance and grip control. A multi-chamber tyre finite element model using ABAQUS software was developed from a conventional tyre model to design and validate these tyre prototypes. These multi-chamber tyre prototypes were manufactured with the assistance of Fusion Innovations Ltd and tested in the University of Birmingham tyre test rig. Finally, a shape memory alloy valve design was investigated to control the air flow in the multi-chamber tyre