Tire wear analysis method

A method of analyzing tire wear for a vehicle;

• the method comprising the steps of:
• (a) characterizing a wear course by driving a vehicle over the wear course and measuring data related to a plurality of forces experienced by the vehicle;
• (b) creating a vehicle characterization model for a vehicle for which the tire wear is to be analyzed;
• (c) using the vehicle characterization model to calculate force data that represents the forces that would be experienced by at least one tire of the characterized vehicle if the characterized vehicle were driven over the characterized wear test course;
• (d) using the force data with a first tire to create a first set of tire wear data;
• (e) using the force data with a second tire to create a second set of tire wear data;
• and
• (h) comparing the first and second sets of tire wear data to determine which of the first and second tires provides better tire wear performance for the characterized vehicle.

A method of developing a set of input forces used to analyze tire wear;

• the method comprising the steps of:
• (a) characterizing a wear course by driving a first vehicle over the wear course and measuring data related to a plurality of forces experienced by the first vehicle;
• (b) creating a vehicle characterization model for a target vehicle having a first vehicle configuration;
• the target vehicle having at least one tire wherein the tire wear is to be analyzed for the target vehicle;
• and
• (c) using the vehicle characterization model to calculate force data that represents the forces that would be experienced by at least one tire of the target vehicle if the target vehicle were driven over the characterized wear test course in the first vehicle configuration.