Study Of Rolling Resistance And Temperature Profile For Radial Tire On Steady State Condition

Rolling resistance is generated from hysteretic loss and friction loss when the tire rolling on the road, at the same time, the tire temperature is increased. This directly affects the life of tire and the energy consumption of vehicle. Therefore, the study of tire rolling resistance and temperature distribution is necessary for tire company to improve tire design and rubber formulations, for drivers to reduce fuel consumption and improve traffic safety.In this paper, the rolling resistance and temperature profile of the 11R22.5 radial tire is investigated using the finite element program Abaqus. Material properties are measured. The temperature profile of tire outer surface is measured by infrared thermometer.In order to get the general behavior of tire materials, uniaxial tension, pure shear and fix-volume compression tests are conducted. Thermal properties of rubbers, such as thermal conductivity, specific heat, density, and dynamic mechanical properties such as tgδ, are also measured.Based on the sequentially coupling approach, the rolling resistance and temperature analysis of the 11R22.5 radial tire is modeled by three modules, including deformation analysis module, dissipation energy module and heat transfer analysis module. In deformation analysis module, tire assembly, inflation, loading and steady state rolling are simulated. Energy dissipation and heat generation ratio are calculated by a FORTRAN program which analyze the strain and stress cycles by means of the Fourier transformation. In heat transfer analysis, the HETVAL user subroutine is used to define heat resource in tire structure. The heat transfer coefficients of different regions of the outer surface are obtained by the method of inverse analysis and heat conduction is assumed between the inner surface and air.The effects of belt angle, cord density and different tread rubber are studied, particularly in the area of belt ends and the carcass turn-up ends. The results show that rolling resistance of tires reduce with the belt angle and cord density increases. However, the trend of different rubber types on rolling resistance is different. Tread has a significant effect on rolling resistance. Tire shoulder temperature increases significantly with the increase of belt angle.