Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 01 Dec 2011

Application of Computational Mechanics to Tire Design—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Page Range: 223 – 244
DOI: 10.2346/1.3670034
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Abstract

The tire technology related with the computational mechanics is reviewed from the standpoint of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Yesterday: A finite element method was developed in the 1950s as a tool of computational mechanics. In the tire manufacturers, finite element analysis (FEA) was started applying to a tire analysis in the beginning of 1970s and this was much earlier than the vehicle industry, electric industry, and others. The main reason was that construction and configurations of a tire were so complicated that analytical approach could not solve many problems related with tire mechanics. Since commercial software was not so popular in 1970s, in-house axisymmetric codes were developed for three kinds of application such as stress/strain, heat conduction, and modal analysis. Since FEA could make the stress/strain visible in a tire, the application area was mainly tire durability.

Today: combining FEA with optimization techniques, the tire design procedure is drastically changed in side wall shape, tire crown shape, pitch variation, tire pattern, etc. So the computational mechanics becomes an indispensable tool for tire industry. Furthermore, an insight to improve tire performance is obtained from the optimized solution and the new technologies were created from the insight. Then, FEA is applied to various areas such as hydroplaning and snow traction based on the formulation of fluid–tire interaction. Since the computational mechanics enables us to see what we could not see, new tire patterns were developed by seeing the streamline in tire contact area and shear stress in snow in traction.Tomorrow: The computational mechanics will be applied in multidisciplinary areas and nano-scale areas to create new technologies. The environmental subjects will be more important such as rolling resistance, noise and wear.

Keywords: computational mechanics; fluid-structure interaction; optimization; multidisciplinary; tire
Copyright: The Tire Society
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1

Tire in cornering by axisymmetric FEA.

FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2

Natural equilibrium shape.

FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3

Nonequilibrium shape: RCOT.

FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4

Shape optimization procedure.

FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5

Optimized nonequilibrium shape: GUTT.

FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6

Tension of optimized sidewall shape.

FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7

Optimization of bead construction.

FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8

Optimized result and a trial tire.

FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9

Belt constructions in market.

FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10

Optimization of belt construction by GA.

FIGURE 11
FIGURE 11

Optimization process in GA.

FIGURE 12
FIGURE 12

Water flow in tread pattern.

FIGURE 13
FIGURE 13

Streamline in blank tread.

FIGURE 14
FIGURE 14

F1 WET pattern.

FIGURE 15
FIGURE 15

Tire and snow model.

FIGURE 16
FIGURE 16

Shear stress distribution of snow at contact patch.

FIGURE 17
FIGURE 17

Flow diagram of soil.

FIGURE 18
FIGURE 18

New technology for SSR.

FIGURE 19
FIGURE 19

Flow diagram around projections.

FIGURE 20
FIGURE 20

FEA of vehicle/tire in cornering.

FIGURE 21
FIGURE 21

Simulated deformation of a tire.

FIGURE 22
FIGURE 22

Nano-simulation for interaction of polymer and carbon black.

FIGURE 23
FIGURE 23

Effect of carbon black dispersion on strain.

FIGURE 24
FIGURE 24

Comparison of FEM and meshless simulation.

FIGURE 25
FIGURE 25

Noise simulation.

FIGURE 26
FIGURE 26

Optimized tire size for RR.

FIGURE 27
FIGURE 27

RR with different tire size (measurement).

FIGURE 28
FIGURE 28

Optimized tire shape for RR.

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