Evaluation of TPMS Signal Propagation in a Heavy Commercial Vehicle Environement

This paper aims to evaluate the performance of the state-of-the-art Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) in a heavy commercial vehicle environment. We adopt a novel qualitative approach to determine the radio frequency (RF) signal propagation characteristics of high frequency antennas used in a state of the art TPMS solution [1]. We outline the effect of both the tire and wheel on the RF signal and system function, and compare it to the propagation in a free space. The paper quantifies the antenna RF propagation using finite element method (FEM) and using realistic models of the sensor, the wheel and the commercial tire. The adverse effect of the heavy vehicle environment on the signal propagation is described. Finally, the paper questions the feasibility of conventional TPMS in commercial vehicle, and calls for novel communication technologies to enable future use case such as smart tires.