Simulation of tire dynamic behavior using various finite element techniques

Pneumatic tires play an important role in the overall performance of a vehicle. Force and moment (FM) characteristics generated at the tire-road contact interface during various vehicle operating conditions such as cornering, braking and combined cornering-cum-braking play a crucial role in the vehicle handling performance. Experimental techniques to determine tire dynamic characteristics are expensive, cumbersome and time-consuming as testing facilities are available only at a few places in the globe. Simulations of tire dynamic behavior during cornering and braking using implicit and explicit Finite Element (FE) solution techniques are presented in this paper. Mixed Lagrangian Eulerian computational algorithm has also been considered. ABAQUS/Standard and ABAQUS/Explicit, the popular non-linear FE codes, are used to simulate the dynamics of a radial tire. The simulation results from all the FE techniques are compared with the experimental FM characteristics. The mixed Lagrangian Eulerian computational algorithm is found to be the most efficient and cost-effective tool to simulate steady state behavior. Computational resources form a major limitation with both the implicit and explicit dynamic procedures. Numerical noise and hourglassing are the major limitations of the explicit FE technique.