Measurement of the Particle Distribution around the Tire of a Light Commercial Vehicle on Unpaved Roads 2024-01-5032

Dust testing of vehicles on unpaved roads is crucial in the development process for automotive manufacturers. These tests aim to ensure the functionality of locking systems in dusty conditions, minimize dust concentration inside the vehicle, and enhance customer comfort by preventing dust accumulation on the car body. Additionally, deposition on safety-critical parts, such as windshields and sensors, can pose threats to driver vision and autonomous driving capabilities. Currently, dust tests are primarily conducted experimentally at proving grounds. In order to gain early insights and reduce the need for costly physical tests, numerical simulations are becoming a promising alternative.

Although simulations of vehicle contamination by dry dust have been studied in the past, they have often lacked detailed models for tire dust resuspension. In addition, few publications address the specifics of dust deposition on vehicles, especially in areas such as door gaps and locks. Many authors focus primarily on the environmental impact of vehicles due to non-exhaust emissions, such as tire and road wear particles (TRWP) and brake wear on paved roads.

To close this gap, this paper presents an experimental test in which a vehicle drives through a dry dust track. Using special dust measurement techniques positioned in the wheelhouse, we determine the number and size distribution of the dust particle field around the tire circumference. The results of this experiment provide a deeper understanding of the dust dispersion patterns generated by tires on unpaved surfaces and serve as valuable data for boundary conditions and for the validation of CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations.