Apparatus and method for detecting an internal mechanical failure occurring in a tire

1. An apparatus for detecting an internal mechanical failure of a tire that is attached to a wheel of a vehicle while the vehicle is traveling, including:

an information acquiring part for acquiring tire information on a predetermined portion of the tire at least in a tire radical direction and a tire width direction orthogonal to the tire radial direction during rotating while the vehicle is traveling, respectively;

a deriving part for deriving a deformation amount of a contact-portion of the tire at least in the tire width direction based on the tire information, the contact-portion being in contact with the ground;

a calculating part for calculating an evaluation value for determining a presence or absence of the internal mechanical failure based on the derived deformation amount of the tire at least in the tire width direction by the deriving part; and

a determining part for comparing the calculated evaluation value by the calculating part with a predetermined reference value to determine whether or not the internal mechanical failure has occurred in the tire.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the information acquiring part acquires acceleration data of the predetermined portion of the tire in time series in the tire radical direction and the tire with direction as the tire information, said acceleration data generated when the tire receives an external force from a road surface during rotating while the vehicle is traveling, and

wherein the deriving part obtains the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire width direction by using the acceleration data of the tire in time series in the tire radial direction and the tire width direction acquired in the information acquiring part, respectively.

3. An apparatus for detecting an internal mechanical failure of a tire that is attached to a wheel of a vehicle while the vehicle is traveling, including;

an information acquiring part for acquiring tire information on the tire during rotating while the vehicle is traveling;

a deriving part for deriving a deformation amount of a contact-portion of the tire based on the tire information, the contact-portion being in contact with the ground;

a calculating part for calculating an evaluation value for determining a presence or absence of the internal mechanical failure based on the derived deformation amount; and

a determining part for comparing the calculated evaluation value with a predetermined reference value to determine whether or not the internal mechanical failure has occurred in the tire,

wherein the information acquiring part acquires acceleration data of a predetermined portion of the tire in time series as the tire information, said acceleration data generated when the tire receives an external force from a road surface during rotating while the vehicle is traveling, and

wherein the deriving part extracts acceleration data due to a deformation of the tire in time series from the acceleration data of the tire in time series acquired in the information acquiring part, and performs a second-order time integration with respect to the acceleration data due to the deformation of the tire to obtain displacement data, thereby calculating the deformation amount of the contact-portion of the tire.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the information acquiring part acquires separately, as the tire information, tire information on the predetermined portion of the tire in a tire circumferential direction orthogonal to the tire radial direction and the tire width direction during rotating while the vehicle is traveling in addition to the tire information on the tire in the tire radial direction and the tire width direction,

wherein the deriving part derives a deformation amount of the contact-portion of the tire in the tire circumferential direction based on the tire information on the tire in the tire circumferential direction, the tire radial direction and the tire width direction in addition to the deformation amount of the contact-portion of the tire in the tire width direction, and obtains deformation amounts of the contact-portion in two directions of the tire circumferential direction and a tire width direction, respectively, and

wherein the calculating part calculates the evaluation value based on the deformation amounts in said two directions.

5. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the calculating part calculates a value represented by using one of X max /Y max and Y max /X max as the evaluation value, X max being a maximum value of the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire circumferential direction, and Y max being a maximum value of the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire width direction.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the calculating part calculates a value represented by using one of tan −1 (X max /Y max ) and tan −1 (Y max /X max ) as the evaluation value.

7. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the calculating part calculates a value represented by X max ×Y max as the evaluation value, X max being a maximum value of the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire circumferential direction and Y max being a maximum value of the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire width direction.

8. The apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the calculating part calculates the evaluation value based on respective maximum values of the deformation amounts of the contact-portion in the tire circumferential direction and tire width direction.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating part calculates the evaluation value based on a maximum value of the deformation amount of the contact-portion in the tire width direction.

10. A method of detecting an internal mechanical failure of a tire that is attached to a wheel of a vehicle while the vehicle is traveling, including:

acquiring tire information on a predetermined portion of the tire at least in a tire radial direction and a tire width direction orthogonal to the tire radical direction during rotating while the vehicle is traveling, respectively;

deriving a deformation amount of a contact-portion of the tire at least in the tire width direction based on the tire information, the contact-portion being in contact with the ground;

calculating an evaluation value for determining a presence or absence of the internal mechanical failure based on the derived deformation amount of the tire at least in the tire width direction by the deriving step; and

comparing the calculated evaluation value by the calculating step with a predetermined reference value to determine whether or not the internal mechanical failure has occurred in the tire.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the tire information is acceleration data.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , further including an acceleration sensor placed on an inner surface of the predetermined portion of the tire for measuring the acceleration data of the predetermined portion in the tire radial direction and the tire width direction, respectively.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12 , further including a transmitter provided in the wheel, the transmitter transmitting the acceleration data measured by the acceleration sensor to the information acquiring port by wireless; and

wherein the information acquiring part includes a receiver for receiving the acceleration data transmitted by wireless.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12 , wherein the acceleration sensor further measures the acceleration data of the predetermined portion in the tire circumferential direction in addition to the acceleration data of the predetermined portion in the tire radial direction and the tire width direction.

15. A method of detecting an internal mechanical failure of a tire that is attached to a wheel of a vehicle while the vehicle is traveling, comprising;

acquiring tire information on the tire during rotating while the vehicle is traveling;

deriving a deformation amount of a contact-portion of the tire based on the tire information, the contact-portion being in contact with the ground;

calculating an evaluation value for determining a presence or absence of the internal mechanical failure based on the derived deformation amount; and

comparing the calculated evaluation value with a predetermined reference value to determine whether or not the internal mechanical failure has occurred in the tire,

wherein the acquiring step is a step of acquiring acceleration data of a predetermined portion of the tire in time series as the tire information, said acceleration data generated when the tire receives an external force from a road surface during rotating while the vehicle is traveling, and

wherein the deriving step is a step of extracting acceleration data due to a deformation of the tire in time series from the acceleration data of the tire in time series acquired in the acquiring step, and performing a second-order time integration with respect to the acceleration data due to the deformation of the tire to obtain displacement data, thereby calculating the deformation amount of the contact-portion of the tire.