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The existing tire models are basically of three kinds: essentially empirical (“magic formulas”), or mixed empirical/analytical, or extremely complex theoretical models almost useless in practical situations. The model here proposed does not require any empirical data, and presents a simple theoretical approach very suitable to use in project and analysis of real suspension systems. This paper presents a physical and mathematical model for the mechanical behavior of pneumatic car tires, in the particular case of lateral loading. It is a theoretical model, in the sense that it does not require any empirical data. It is based on the perfectly flexible and quasi-inextensible membrane theory. The next step will be to compare the calculated results from this model with measured data to validate this model.

The so called “slips” - longitudinal, lateral and spin - on vehicles' tires are very important in modeling the ride and cornering vehicle dynamics, and usually they are obtained by testing or using empirical expressions. This text suggests analytical expressions to evaluate numerically the longitudinal slip factor, through calculations involving tire's geometric and material properties only, for usual ride and cornering conditions. The results are applicable to small and medium displacements and forces range, where there is no significant sliding at the tire-ground contact surface. An analogous approach to the other “slips” will be done in further articles.