Indirect tire wear state prediction system and method
AssigneeThe Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
InventorsKanwar Bharat Singh, Marc Engel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tire wear state estimation system estimates forces and sliding velocity generated in a tire contact patch, determines frictional energy from the tire force and sliding velocity, and generates an estimate of tire wear state based upon the frictional work done by the tire. A tire wear estimate, pursuant to the system and methodology, is made by determining the amount of frictional work performed by the tire through the integrated use of tire-mounted, GPS sourced, and vehicle-mounted sensor information.
Claims18
A tire wear state estimation system comprising:
- a plurality of tires supporting a vehicle;
- a plurality of tire-mounted devices provided on at least one tire of the plurality of tires operable to supply tire-specific contact dynamics information;
- at least one inertial measurement unit operable to supply sliding velocity information from a tire contact patch formed by the at least one tire rolling over a ground surface;
- an ambient condition monitoring system operable to supply ambient condition information;
- a tire force and sliding velocity estimator operable to determine a tire force estimate and a tire sliding velocity estimate from the tire-specific contact dynamics information and the sliding velocity information;
- a tire frictional energy estimator operable to estimate tire frictional energy from the tire force estimate and the tire sliding velocity estimate;
- a tire frictional work estimator operable to determine a tire frictional work estimate from the tire frictional energy estimate;
- and
- a tire wear rate estimator operable to generate a tire wear rate estimate from the tire frictional work estimate and the ambient condition information.
A tire wear state estimation system comprising:
- a plurality of tires supporting a vehicle;
- a plurality of tire-mounted devices provided on at least one tire of the plurality of tires operable to supply tire-specific information affecting tire contact patch dynamics;
- at least one inertial measurement unit operable to supply sliding velocity information from a tire contact patch formed by the at least one tire rolling over a ground surface;
- a friction work estimator operable to calculate a friction work estimate done by the at least one tire from the tire-specific information and the sliding velocity information;
- a tire wear rate estimator operable to generate a tire wear rate estimation from drawing a proportional correlation between an abradability factor of the at least one tire and the calculated friction work estimate.
A method of making a tire wear state estimation comprising:
- supporting a vehicle by a plurality of tires;
- mounting a plurality of tire-specific information-providing devices to at least one tire of the plurality of tires operable to supply tire-specific information affecting tire contact patch dynamics;
- utilizing at least one inertial measurement unit to supply sliding velocity information from a tire contact patch formed by the at least one tire rolling over a ground surface;
- employing a friction work estimator operable to calculate a friction work estimate done by the at least one tire from the tire-specific information and the sliding velocity information;
- employing a tire wear rate estimator operable to generate a tire wear rate estimation from drawing a proportional correlation between an abradability factor of the at least one tire and the calculated friction work estimate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.