Pure Mobility: Rolling Resistance in Future Vehicle‐Road Systems

ABSTRACT Today's road traffic is characterized by an enormous effort in the consumption of space, energy, and resources. The initiative “Pure Mobiliy” intends to develop a mobility system in addition to public transport based on small, autonomously driving electric vehicles in combination with innovative roads made of water‐permeable, sustainable, and resource‐efficient materials. Such an approach will have an effect on the driving resistance, particularly on the rolling resistance, which depends on tire geometry, material, and tire–road‐interaction. In order to investigate the vehicle rolling resistance in tire–road interaction, the commercial finite element software Abaqus is used for tire analysis, which includes tire inflation, footprint analysis, and steady‐state rolling analysis as well as an explicit analysis step of the tire rolling on a surface. A Python‐based post‐processing algorithm is employed for identifying the hysteresis losses in tires rolling on a rigid surface. These hysteresis losses appear due to the material behavior of the tire rubber, which is modeled using a hyperelastic material model in conjunction with a Prony‐Series. A parameter study varying inflation pressure, wheel load, and translational tire velocity is conducted to check the plausibility of the developed method. The results will be input to a standard automotive simulation tool to compare the energy consumption of tire–road combinations in the Worldwide harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTC).