Influence of Tire/Wheel Nonuniformities on Heavy Truck Ride Quality

摘要

Nonuniformities in the tire/wheel assemblies of heavy trucks, such as mass imbalance or geometric runout, add to the ride vibrations on the road at the rotational frequency of the wheel and harmonics thereof. An experiment was performed in which a cab-over-engine tractor was mounted on a hydraulic road simulator and exposed to a typical road roughness input, together with simulated tire/wheel nonuniformity inputs in the vertical direction. Subjective ratings of the ride were obtained from a 10-person jury for 100 test conditions covering different amplitudes, frequencies, wheel positions, and combinations of nonuniformities. Findings were used to predict the ride degradation arising from the radial nonuniformities in the wheels of the test tractor. It appears that the hydraulic road simulator is an efficient and valid method for evaluating truck sensitivity to radial nonuniformity inputs. The development of a similar methodology for studying the effects of nonuniformity excitation in other force directions is recommended.