Finite Element Analysis For Tread Wear Of Radial Tire

With the rapid development of automobile and tire industries, finite element analysis has been extensively used to predict and optimize the tire performances. In this thesis, the tread wear was studied for 11.00R20 truck radial tire, with the help of nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS. The tread wear performance was optimized using the design sensitivity analysis and the orthogonal design experimental methods.Firstly, an axisymmetric model and a three dimensional model for 11.00R20 truck radial tire were constructed, according to the actual material distribution of this tire. And, compared the simulation and experiment results of the inflated section width and inflated outer diameter under the standard pressure, along with the sinkage, contact area and static stiffness curve under the standard load, it is shown that they had a good agreement.Secondly, the tire was rolled using the key words for steady state transport within the ABAQUS, further tread wear performance was analyzed using the Archard wear model and the UMESHMOTION subroutine. The analysis results of tread wear showed that the average wear loss of tread is 1.08mm under the standard condition. Service conditions like pressure, load, speed, friction coefficient and slip, braking and traction have significant effects on the distributions of tread wear.Finally, the tread wear performance was optimized by using the belt parameters and rubber properties. On one hand, this thesis explored the effect of belt parameters on tread wear and the grounding performance et al. using the orthogonal design method. The results showed that, with the increase of belt angles, the uniform distribution of contact pressure in tread and the wear resistances of tire are improved, and the wear loss in the same mileages reduced. Moreover, the modulus of belts had slight effect on tread wear. On the other hand, with the design sensitivity analysis of ABAQUS, the increase of the modulus of carcass rubber lead to reducing the largest contact pressure and skewness of contact pressure, decreasing the uneven wear of tread, but the increase of the modulus of tread rubber has the contrary results.In conclusion, the tire finite element models established in this research are reasonable, according to the comparison of experimental results with the measured results. We accurately obtained tire tread wear characteristics under various working condition, and the tire wear performance is optimized, it is important for ones to use tire correctly and improve the performance of tire tread wear.