Effect of Added Mass of Spindle Wheel Force Transducer on Vehicle Dynamic Response 2012-01-0210

Wheel force and moment transducers (WFT) are widely used in vehicle testing and analysis [1], [2], [3]. There are many benefits of using these sensors. To install the transducer, vehicle wheel has to be modified. Transducer mounting adaptors are required to interface the sensor with the modified wheel rim. To study the effect of added mass with wheel force transducers, three vehicles, two types of passenger cars, and one SUV, were instrumented with an MTS spindle wheel force transducer (SWIFT 30A) as well as with regular wheels. The instrumented vehicles were driven on multiple proving ground surfaces with three passes for each vehicle. This experimental data was analyzed using RPC Pro software to assess both per pass variation and data trends from 3 passes without WFT (baseline) and 3 passes with WFT added mass.

A validated ADAMS model of a production passenger vehicle, with and without added weight of the wheel force transducers, was also used to assess the added weight effect. The ADAMS vehicle model with Ftire tire model was simulated on 3-bumps and Belgian Blocks events.