Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 22 Jan 2020

Experimental Investigation and Simulation of Aircraft Tire Wear

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Page Range: 55 – 74
DOI: 10.2346/tire.20.180201
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ABSTRACT

Not only in the automotive sector, but also in the field of aircraft tires, the topic of abrasion is of great importance. The aircraft tire manufacturers provide criteria for the permissible degree of wear. If these limits are exceeded, the tire must be replaced or retreaded. By this time, the tire should withstand as many takeoff and landing cycles as possible. Abrasion models should help to predict the wear behavior in preflight modeling.

At the Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, quasi-steady abrasion tests are performed using tread block samples from an aircraft tire. For various pressures and sliding speeds, the abrasion is determined by recording the mass loss of the rubber sample. Based on these measurement data, a wear model is derived as a function of coefficient of friction, contact pressure, and sliding speed for different ambient temperatures.

The well-known brush model forms the basis for the wear simulations. With parameters validated on the aircraft tire, such as contact length, stiffness, and friction coefficient, the resulting mechanical forces within the contact area are calculated. Finally, the classic brush model is extended by the abrasion calculation. The tire wear is determined during unsteady load and slip conditions by use of the quasi-steady wear maps derived from our experiments. Within a measurement campaign on the complete tire, the tread depth is measured after various driving maneuvers and is in good agreement with the simulation results.

Keywords: tire wear; rubber friction; brush model; aircraft
FIG. 1
FIG. 1

(Left) high-speed linear test rig (HiLiTe); (right) HiLiTe carriage in detail.

FIG. 2
FIG. 2

Used surfaces. (Left) concrete; (right) asphalt.

FIG. 3
FIG. 3

(a) profile block glued onto a sample holder; (b) profile block after measurements (view of the contact area).

FIG. 4
FIG. 4

Run-in process of profile blocks for v = 1 m/s and p = 10 bar.

FIG. 5
FIG. 5

Measurement results of wear rate for an asphalt and a concrete surface, (a) at different contact pressures for v = 3 m/s, and (b) for different sliding speeds and p = 17 bar.

FIG. 6
FIG. 6

Viscoelastic material behavior of rubber.

FIG. 7
FIG. 7

Measurement results for different ambient temperatures (a) for different contact pressures and v = 3 m/s, and (b) for different ambient temperature and sliding speed at p = 17 bar.

FIG. 8
FIG. 8

Temperature-dependent wear rate (a) measurement results for different ambient temperature for p = 17 bar and v = 5 m/s, and (b) relation between friction and wear, according to Persson and Tosatti [22].

FIG. 9
FIG. 9

Functional relation between (a) sliding speed and wear rate at p = 20 bar and (b) contact pressure and wear rate at v = 5 m/s.

FIG. 10
FIG. 10

Approximation of wear rate on (a) concrete surface and (b) asphalt surface at T = 20 °C.

FIG. 11
FIG. 11

Vertical load distribution (measurement and approximation).

FIG. 12
FIG. 12

Forces within the contact zone for isotropic (top) and anisotropic bristle stiffness (bottom), according to Sorniotti and Velardocchia [25].

FIG. 13
FIG. 13

Longitudinal and lateral contact force.

FIG. 14
FIG. 14

Approximation of tire footprint.

FIG. 15
FIG. 15

Sliding speed and wear rate within contact area calculated with brush model and wear model.

FIG. 16
FIG. 16

Input/ output parameter of brush model.

FIG. 17
FIG. 17

Measured and simulated results of tire wear.

Contributor Notes

1 Corresponding author. Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Leibniz University Hannover, Appelstr. 11, 30167 Hannover, Germany. Email: kahms@ids.uni-hannover.de
2 Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Leibniz University Hannover, Appelstr. 11, 30167 Hannover, Germany. Email: wangenheim@ids.uni-hannover.de
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