Tire emulator for road simulators
AssigneeMTS Systems Corporation
InventorSteven R. Haeg
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mechanical tire emulator for spindle coupled road simulators. It simulates the real case tire impedance characteristics, including wheel hop, between the servo actuator produced vertical road input motion and the vehicle spindle. By simulating the loading impedance of the tire using a fluid pressure actuator loading through a compressible fluid cushion and substituting this actuator device for the rigid vertical link on prior art spindle coupled road simulators, the overall mounting arrangement is simplified over that when a tire itself is mounted on a wheel for such testing.
Claims19
A tire simulating load link for a spindle coupled load simulator comprising a compressible fluid actuator assembly including a fluid cylinder, a piston mounted in said cylinder, a rod extending from said cylinder, means to provide fluid pressure in said cylinder on a side of said piston to transfer loads from a loading apparatus to the spindle through a compressed fluid cushion acting on the piston within the cylinder, said compressed fluid cushion being adjusted to simulate loading the spindle through a pneumatic tire.
A tire simulating load link for a wheel spindle coupled road simulator test assembly comprising a gaseous fluid actuator, said fluid actuator including a cylinder member, a piston slidably mounted in said cylinder member and being slidably sealed with respect to an interior of said cylinder member, and a rod coupled to said piston for generating loads in a first direction between the cylinder and the piston to apply loads in a first axial direction of the rod between a loading apparatus and a spindle to be tested, means to control the pressure transferring loads in the first direction of the rod between the cylinder and piston to establish a gaseous fluid cushion between portions of the cylinder and the piston, and means to limit movement of said cylinder and piston relative to each other in a second direction of the rod to provide a second stopped position of said piston, said rod being prevented from movement in said second direction relative to said piston beyond the second stopped position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.