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312 Multibody Systems Approach to Vehicle Dynamics
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Fig. 5.66
Penetration of tyre elemental slice by road surface elements
Contact point
for Area 3
Centre of Area 3
Fig. 5.67
Determination of effective contact point
The location of the effective contact point, within the deformed volume of
tyre, is found by taking a weighted average of the contact point locations
associated with each component of area within each cross-sectional element
of the tyre. In Figure 5.67 it can be seen that for the component of area
shown, the associated contact point is located where the road surface is
intersected by a line normal to the road surface and passing through the
centre of area. On this basis the x co-ordinate, X ecp , for the effective contact
point of the tyre would be found from
n m
Amwn
Xecp∑ ∑ Xm
(5.70)
V
i1
j1
e ff
where
X m is the x co-ordinate of the contact point for the mth component of area
within the cross-sectional tyre element.
The y and z co-ordinates of the effective contact point are found using the
same approach used to determine X ecp in equation (5.71). Having located