Study on Deflection Performance of Radial Tire by Finite Element Method

In order to improve vehicle safety, the accurate determination of the tire's loading behaviour is necessary in the domain of vehicle dynamics. The interaction between the tire and the surface of the road must be understood thoroughly. A 3D finite element model of the tire-road has been built by using MARC software according to the actual construction of the 195/60R14 radial tire. The rebar model of the radial tire is employed to simulate the complex multilayer cord-rubber composites and directly define the cord directions varying with their positions. The geometric nonlinearity due to large deformation, material nonlinearity and the nonlinear boundary conditions from tire–rim contact and tire–road contact are also considered. The relationships between load and the tire deflection, the tire deformation, the contact stress distribution and the distribution of the contact friction force are discussed.