Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 27 Jan 2024

Evaluating Tire Tread Wear and Its Dependence on Tire Working Conditions by Using the Finite Element Method and Archard’s Wear Theory

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Page Range: 285 – 298
DOI: 10.2346/tire.22.21023
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ABSTRACT

The tire industry still spends a considerable amount of resources on indoor and outdoor tests during the product development stage. Virtual tests provide conditions to complete this step faster, saving both money and time. Considering that life span and mileage are important issues, especially for truck tire consumers, virtual wear analyses provide valuable information that helps engineers to improve their products. This study aims to exemplify a way to predict tread band wear using the finite element method approach and Archard’s wear theory. In addition, it shows the importance of following the vehicle maintenance program as it has an impact on how long the set of tires will last. Tread wear simulation is implemented through user subroutine and adaptive meshing technique, whereas friction energy is calculated using a steady-state analysis at selected working conditions. Data collected from outdoor experiments provide the necessary information to check and validate the analysis. The impact of the lack of appropriate vehicle maintenance on tire wear is evaluated by changing some boundary conditions of the model such as load, inner pressure, and camber and toe angles. The simulation results show good agreement with the information found in the literature.

Keywords: tire wear; finite element method; uneven wear; steady-state rolling analysis
FIG. 1 —
FIG. 1 —

Tire tread represented as a composition of ribbons, centerlines, and nodes.

FIG. 2 —
FIG. 2 —

The local material recession () is calculated for every streamline and applied to the nodes on the tread surface to simulate wear.

FIG. 3 —
FIG. 3 —

Tread wear simulation workflow.

FIG. 4 —
FIG. 4 —

Sequence describing how the tread depth of both the right front tire and left front tire was measured along several months.

FIG. 5 —
FIG. 5 —

Data collected during outdoor wear tests.

FIG. 6 —
FIG. 6 —

Calculated average wear at the grooves of the left front tire.

FIG. 7 —
FIG. 7 —

Comparison between real tire and virtual model regarding tread wear.

FIG. 8 —
FIG. 8 —

Evolution of the tread wear analysis.

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FIG. 9 —

Effects of the inflation pressure on tire tread wear.

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FIG. 10 —

Friction energy along the tire cross section for both properly inflated and underinflated tires.

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FIG. 11 —

Tire feathering caused by nonzero toe angles.

FIG. 12 —
FIG. 12 —

Changes in tire footprint because of feathering.

FIG. 13 —
FIG. 13 —

Uneven wear due to camber.

FIG. 14 —
FIG. 14 —

Tread wear along the tire cross section for three different camber settings.

Contributor Notes

1 R&D Department, Prometeon Tyre Group, 871 Giovanni Battista Pirelli Street, Santo André, São Paulo, 09111-340, Brazil
2 Corresponding author. Email: heronj.dionisio@gmail.com
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