Effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control on Maintaining Yaw Stability When an SUV Has a Rear Tire Tread Separation 2009-01-0436

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) has the potential of improving yaw stability and reducing the occurrence of a crash when a vehicle experiences a rear tire tread separation. Two instrumented 4-door, RWD SUV’s equipped with ESC were tested to evaluate the effectiveness of their ESC systems on maintaining yaw stability under these circumstances. The test vehicles were evaluated with the tread and outer steel belt removed from the right rear tire. Tests were run with the ESC engaged and then repeated with the ESC disengaged. All runs were completed with the tires inflated to the manufacturer’s recommended pressure. An analysis of the data collected shows that there are significant differences in the steering input required to generate a loss of control response with and without ESC enabled. Results of Sine with Dwell testing demonstrate a significant reduction in vehicle spinout response with the ESC engaged. Over three times more steering input was required before the vehicle exhibited a spinout response with ESC enabled when compared to the ESC disabled vehicle. This will likely have a positive effect on a driver’s ability to maintain control when faced with a rear tire tread separation under real world circumstances.