A multiphysical tire-centered procedure for vehicle digitalization in outdoor virtualized scenarios

In recent years, the tire maker and vehicle manufacturer markets have undergone profound changes, for which the use of reliable simulations and models has become fundamental and essential. Virtual testing in simulation environments, from the preliminary design stages, gives the possibility to optimize the final product taking into account several design constraints, reducing the prototypes with the related costs and saving time. In addition, virtual simulations have the advantage of completely controlling almost all the possible testing conditions, thus offering the opportunity to investigate several possible design strategies, avoiding all the risks related to real-world testing. In this evolving context, this paper presents a complete digitalization process for a vehicle and its sub-components. In particular, great attention is spent on modeling the tire, undeniably one of the most complex modules of the vehicle due to its non-linear behavior affected by interlinked multiphysical phenomena. Particular consideration is thus given to tires coupling with the vehicle model, together with the reproduction of the road and the scenario created on the track. This approach of confirming the real telemetry with the virtual one, working with physical-based models and procedures to assess tire performance not in-lab but on-road led to an accurate reproduction of the reality in offline simulations first and dramatically helped to make the driving simulator experience fully realistic and predictive for analysis on the overall interaction of the vehicle with the external environment, taking note of the driver’s feedback.