Modelling the tyre forces for a simulation analysis of a vehicle accident reconstruction

Abstract

This paper proposes a modified bilinear tyre force model for simulations of the vehicle dynamics, which is the core part in reconstruction analysis of vehicle collision accidents. The physical parameters involved were estimated using a statistical method based on experimental test results of the tyre forces. With an appropriate setting of the input data related to a tyre blowout, a simulation analysis of the dynamics of the vehicle which had suffered the tyre blowout was performed. The developed simulation analysis results for the dynamic behaviour of a vehicle with normal tyres with total locks or with a one-wheel lock and for vehicles with tyre blowouts when driving straight or turning corresponded well to the results of other commercial programs. The reliability of these results was proved by comparing them with the corresponding data for many vehicles involved in blowout-related accidents and in particular the path travelled by those vehicles as recorded on black-box footages.