Road Data File

 

The MFTire supports Flat Road, Plank Road, Polyline Road and Sine Road that are defined in road data file. Simple road data files are provided with the installation. The following lists are parameters of road data file.

RecurDyn provides some files. These files are in the <install dir>/Toolkits/MFTire/ Road data files.

 

     Flat Road (ROAD_TYPE = 'flat')

As the name already indicates this is a flat road surface.

 

     Plank Road (ROAD_TYPE = 'plank')

This is a single cleat or plank that is oriented perpendicular, or in oblique direction relative to the X axis with or without bevel edges.

 

     Polyline Road (ROAD_TYPE = 'poly_line')

This is the road height as a function of travelled distance.

 

     Sine Road (ROAD_TYPE = 'sine')

The road surface consists of one or more sine waves with constant wavelength.

 

These road surfaces are defined in road data files (*.rdf). Like the tire property file, the road data file consists of various sections indicated with square brackets.

 

! Comments section

$--------------------------------------------------------------------------UNITS

[UNITS]

LENGTH = 'meter'

FORCE = 'newton'

ANGLE = 'degree'

MASS = 'kg'

TIME = 'sec'

$--------------------------------------------------------------------------MODEL

[MODEL]

ROAD_TYPE = '...'

$---------------------------------------------------------------------PARAMETERS

[PARAMETERS]

...

 

     In the [UNITS] section, the units that are used in the road data file are set.

     The [MODEL] section is used to specify the road type, see listing above.

     The [PARAMETERS] section contains general parameters and road surface type specific parameters.

 

The general parameters are listed below:

 

    General

 

Parameters

Descriptions

MU

Is the road friction correction factor (not the friction value itself), to be multiplied with the LMU scaling factors of tire model.

Default setting: MU = 1.0.

OFFSET

Is the vertical offset of ground with respect to inertial frame.

ROTATION_ANGLE_XY_PLANE

Is the rotation angle of XY-plane about the road Z-axis, i.e. definition of the positive X-axis of road with respect to the inertial frame.

DRUM_RADIUS

Is the radius of the drum.

 

    Plank Road

 

Parameters

Descriptions

HEIGHT

Height of the cleat.

START

Distance along the X-axis of the road to the start of the cleat.

LENGTH

Length of the cleat (excluding bevel) along X-axis of the road.

BEVEL_EDGE_LENGTH

Length of the 45 deg. bevel edge of the cleat.

DIRECTION

Rotation of the cleat about the Z-axis with respect to the Yaxis of the road. If the cleat is placed crosswise, DIRECTION = 0. If the cleat is along the X-axis, DIRECTION = 90.

 

 

    Polyline

 

The [PARAMETERS] block must have a (XZ_DATA) subblock. The subblock consists of three columns of numerical data:

 

Column one is a set of X-values in ascending order.

Columns two and three are sets of respective Z-values for left and right track.

Example:

 

[PARAMETERS]

MU                                =  1.0   $ peak friction scaling coefficient

OFFSET                           =    0   $ vertical offset of the ground wrt inertial frame

ROTATION_ANGLE_XY_PLANE =    0   $ definition of the positive X-axis of the road wrt inertial frame

$

$   X_road    Z_left   Z_right

(XZ_DATA)

   -1.0e04         0         0

    0.0500         0         0

    0.1000         0         0

    0.1500         0         0

                         ...           ...         ...

 

    Sine Road

 

The TNO sine road is implemented as:

With z: z-coordinate road; H; Height; x: current position; xstart: start of sine wave; L:Length

 

 

Parameters

Descriptions

HEIGHT

Height of the cleat.

START

Distance along the X-axis of the road to the start of

the sine wave

LENGTH

Wavelength of the sine wave along X-axis of the

road.

DIRECTION

Rotation of the cleat about the Z-axis with respect to the Yaxis of the road. If the cleat is placed crosswise, DIRECTION = 0. If the cleat is along the X-axis, DIRECTION = 90.

N_BUMPS

Number of consecutive sine bumps.