Mechanical properties of cord-rubber composites and tire finite element analysis

An in-house three-dimensional nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) system with cord-rubber composite material models has been developed to simulate and predict mechanical properties of pneumatic tires under different working conditions. The FEA system has been used in tire steady rolling analysis, dynamic analysis, rolling resistance and temperature analysis. This paper gives a brief introduction about these study achievements. Firstly, considered specialties of cord-rubber composites, material mechanical properties and models, including viscoelastic and temperature effects, compressive and bi-axial tensile properties, impact response, fatigue properties, energy dissipated and heat generation as well as heat conduction model are outlined. Secondly, FEA techniques for analysis of tire under complex loading circumstances, and multiple objective optimization for tire belt width are briefly described. Some comparisons between tire FEA and experiment results are also discussed in this paper.