Prediction of Tire Tread Wear with FEM Steady State Rolling Contact Simulation

Abstract

Abstract A procedure based on steady state rolling contact Finite Element Analysis (FEM) has been developed to predict tire cross section tread wear profile under specified vehicle driving conditions. This procedure not only considers the tire construction effects, it also includes the effects of materials, vehicle setup, test course, and driver's driving style. In this algorithm, the vehicle driving conditions are represented by the vehicle acceleration histogram. Vehicle dynamic simulations are done to transform the acceleration histogram into tire loading condition distributions for each tire position. Tire weight loss rates for different vehicle accelerations are generated based on a steady state rolling contact simulation algorithm. Combining the weight loss rate and the vehicle acceleration histogram, nine typical tire loading conditions are chosen with different weight factors to represent tire usage conditions. It is discovered that the tire tread wear rate profile is changing continuously as the tire is worn. Simulation of a new tire alone cannot be used to predict the tire cross-section tread wear profile. For this reason, an incremental tread wear simulation procedure is performed to predict the tire cross section tread wear profile. Compared with actual tire cross-section tread wear profiles, good results are obtained from the simulations.