Modeling and Validation of a Passenger Car Tire Using Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

This paper focuses on the modeling and analysis of a four-groove passenger car tire, size 235/55R19, using finite element analysis. The Mooney–Rivlin material model is employed to define the hyperelastic behavior of the tire rubber compounds for all solid elements. The tire rim is modeled as a rigid body using aluminum alloy material, and the beads are modeled as beam elements using steel material. The tire model is validated in both static and dynamic domains through several simulations and is compared to published measured data. The tire is validated using footprint and vertical stiffness tests in the static domain. In the static footprint test, a steady-state vertical load is applied, and the tire–road contact area is computed. In the vertical stiffness test, a ramp vertical load is applied, and the tire’s vertical displacement is measured to calculate the tire’s vertical stiffness. In the dynamic domain, the tire is validated using drum-cleat and cornering tests. In the drum-cleat test, a drum with a 2.5 m diameter and a cleat with a 15 mm radius is used to excite the tire structure and obtain the frequency of the vertical and longitudinal first modes of vibration, that is, by applying the fast Fourier transformation (FFT) of the vertical and longitudinal reaction forces at the tire center. In addition to this test, the tire model is pre-steered on a flat surface with a two-degree slip angle and subjected to a steady state linear speed of 10 km/h to predict the cornering force and compute the cornering stiffness. In addition, the effect of tire longitudinal speed on the rolling resistance coefficient is then predicted at zero slip angle using the ISO 28580 rolling resistance test. The findings of this research work provide insights into passenger car tire–road interaction analysis and will be further used to perform tire rubber compound material model sensitivity analysis.