Finite Element Analysis For Tread Wear Of Radial Tire

Tire wear not only affects the life itself but also affects some other important performances such as handling, hydroplaning and noise. As the tire industry develops, the environment protecting standards are stricter with using life of tire. Researches on tire wear performance still count on outdoor and indoor tire wear tests, but outdoor and indoor tire wear tests are expensive and time-consuming processes. Thus, numerical analysis technology needs to be developed to cut down the research cost and shorten the research time circle. In such a condition, this dissertation presents an elementary research on the above problems.In order to simulate and analyze tire wear precisely, the effect of normal pressure, sliding velocity and temperature on friction and wear are considered, and the numerical analysis technology on tire tread wear is proposed.Tire wear under five typical driving conditions are simulated. Numerical results indicate that wear rate increases in turn under free rolling, cornering, traction and braking conditions, tread wear profiles are different and all present distinct cross-section uneven wear and heel/toe irregular wear. Considering the occurrence frequencies of loading conditions, tread wear profiles under different mileages during the simplified wear courses are obtained using an increment procedure.Large contact deformations occur at the front parts of tread blocks along the sliding direction and the effect of temperature rise caused by frictional dissipation on friction and wear can not be neglected when the slip ratio increases under braking condition. In order to obtain more accurate stress field and deformation characteristics connected to wear, a global-local method is conducted to analyze tread wear incorporating thermo-mechanical coupling. The numerical results indicate that large contact deformations including curling and self-contact can be simulated using a refined meshed local tread block model. Wear process of tread block during the course of ABS (antilock brake system) braking is simulated and the irregular abrasion character along the circumference of tire is presented.