STUDY ON VEHICLE PULL CHARACTERISTICS ACCORDING TO TIRE TREAD PATTERN

For this thesis, research on vehicle pull at the time of acceleration in accordance with the tire tread pattern changes was conducted. NP tire was used for more diversified tread pattern changes and tires were produced with tread block angle, kerf position and stiffness as the variables. In addition, 3 vehicles with different driving format and output were used to confirm the correlation of pulling phenomenon in accordance with vehicle changes. GPS equipment was used to quantitatively measure the extent of vehicle pull and dynamic foot-print measurement equipment was used to measure the force acting on contact patch in the transverse direction of the tire and road surface. As the results of the research, the factor that imparted the greatest effect on the vehicle pull was found to the tread block angle, with kerf and stiffness imparting effect on vehicle pull to certain extent. Vehicle pull occurred irrespective of the driving format of the vehicle and it was confirmed that there was no effect of torque steer, which was of concern at the initial stage of the research.