Rubber rings

In the first part of this series, published in Racecar Engineering V31N11, we presented an overview of some common methodologies for tyre testing and an introduction to tyre modelling.

Analysing the main features of both indoor and outdoor testing, in terms of accuracy, repeatability and cost, it became clear how each method has its own advantages and disadvantages. And how, depending on the application, one solution could be more appropriate than another.

Another key conclusion was that ‘traditional’ methods cannot handle tyre temperature, wear, pressure and external factors like tarmac characteristics as input parameters for tyre modelling, despite their importance for race tyres’ performance.

Taking temperature as an example, it is usually measured during testing, and some companies may have procedures in place to either take temperature variation into account, or limit how it affects the data used to create their tyre models, but very few models can really incorporate the effects of tyre temperature in the simulation chain, let alone other parameters such as wear or road roughness.

The main driver was to keep cost as low as possible, as the initial investment required for a tyre testing campaign is often a killer for many motorsport organisations
Flavio Farroni, CEO at MegaRide

So, modelling tyres to include the effects of phenomena related to temperature and heat transmission in general, as well as pressure and wear, is extremely complex, but not impossible.

Important steps have been made in this respect in the last few years, with the aim of developing a multi-physical approach to tyre modelling, and adapting tyre testing procedures accordingly. Some interesting new