Optimizing Tire Vertical Stiffness Based on Ride, Handling, Performance, and Fuel Consumption Criteria

Researchers mostly focus on the role of suspension system characteristics on vehicle dynamics. However tire characteristics are also influential on the vehicle dynamics behavior. In this paper, the effects of tire vertical stiffness on the ride, handling, accelerating/braking performance, and fuel consumption of a vehicle are analytically investigated. Furthermore, a method for determining the optimum vertical stiffness of tires is presented. For these purposes, first an appropriate mathematical criterion for the ride, handling, accelerating/braking performance, and fuel consumption is developed. Next, to achieve the optimum tire characteristic, a performance index, which contains all of the above-mentioned criteria, is defined and optimized. In the proposed performance index, the tire vertical stiffness is a design variable and its optimization provides a compromise among ride, handling, accelerating/braking performance, and fuel consumption of the vehicle. Last, the analytical optimization results are confirmed by performing precise numerical simulations.