Development of Empirical Model for the Impact of Motorcycle Front Wheel-Tyre Assembly

In engineering terms, the residual deformation on structural component is correlated to the dissipated energy, the change of momentum, or the change of speed during the impact. Many force-deflection models have been successfully developed for automobiles. However, such engineering model is not well developed for two-wheel motor vehicles due to lack of correlation information between the change of velocity and the structural damage, especially the frontal components such as wheel-tyre assembly which encounter the first and direct impact in frontal collision. The present study has thus been conducted which intended to lay out a route for developing the empirical models for motorcycle front wheel-tyre assembly that can be utilized to assess the impact velocities or change of velocities of a motorcycle in frontal collision based on the post-impact residual deformation of the wheel-tyre assembly. An experimental approach has been adopted for the present study. The test specimens used was the original front wheel-tyre assembly of Malaysia national motorcycle, KRISS 110. The impact tests on motorcycle wheel-tyre assembly have been successfully conducted by employing a pendulum impact test apparatus developed in-house in order to better suit to the experiment requirements. High-speed camera has been used to capture the deformation progress of the wheel-tyre assembly during the impact phase at a rate of 500 frame-per-seconds. Statistical computer program, Minitab Version 13, has been adopted to support the entire experimental process. Five out of eight parameters that are predetermined to be important on impact responses of wheel-tyre assembly have been identified as design factors. These factors are impact speed, impact mass, tyre inflation pressure level, contact geometry of striker, and vertical offset distance of impact location from a wheel axle. A fractional factorial design has been incorporated in the experimental design. Four response variables have been selected, which are, maximum residual crush sustained by the wheel-tyre assembly, normalized area of deformation of the wheel, squared change of velocity of the striker and dissipated impact energy of the wheel-tyre assembly. Regression analysis has been performed in order to yield various possible empirical models in relating dissipated energy to either maximum residual crash or normalized area of deformation. The analysis shows good correlation in which the values of and are greater than 96% for all responses, except that in linear regression for the response , which is about 83%. Factorial analysis has also been performed and the significant factors influencing the impact responses of the wheel-tyre assembly have been identified. The corresponding empirical models for predicting the deformation sustained by the wheel within the experimental design region have also been established. Based on the developed models, dynamic impact characteristics of the wheel-tyre assembly under various impact conditions were discussed.

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