Product development methodologies for self-powered sensor-nodes in vehicle tyres

In this work the study of new product development methodologies is applied to modelling and simulation of several components of a tyre sensor node. The purpose of the sensor node is to improve the active safety of the vehicle making additional information, with respect to traditional TPMS, available to the vehicle dynamic control system. The components involved in the study are the rubber housing and the energy harvester. The rubber housing is a patch that ensures the bonding of the sensor on the tyre inner-liner, and its behaviour is simulated by means of a quasi-static FEM model where deformations and inertial loads are sequentially applied in a static simulation as a function of wheel rotation angle. The proposed method was validated by on-the-field testing. The energy harvester is a device designed to replace the batteries recovering energy from the environment. The performance of this device is studied using analytical techniques as well as numerical models. The reliability of the modelling techniques is confirmed through experimental testing in a controlled environment. The possibility of integrating semi-active controls in an energy harvester is also discussed and confirmed analytically and numerically.