Tire cornering simulation using finite element analysis

The finite element method (FEM) has been used widely in tire engineering. M ost tire simulations with FEM are static analysis, because tire is one of m ost complex structures. Recently, transient analysis has been studied with explicit finite element analysis code. In this paper, at first, we describe characteristics of tire analysis by means of FEM, and implicit/explicit fi nite element codes for analysis. And then we conduct tire cornering simulat ion with implicit and explicit finite element analysis codes, where implici t finite element analysis (FEB) describes the steady state cornering simula tion and explicit FEA describes transient cornering simulation. In the case of implicit FEA, finite element model of tire requires the fine mesh only in the contact region because of formulation by moving reference frame tech nique. On the other hand, for explicit FEA, fine mesh is required in the ci rcumferential direction of tire. Predicted cornering forces of passenger ca r's tire using implicit/explicit FEM are compared with experimental results obtained from MTS Flat-Test Tire Test Systems. We can get a good correlati on between predicted ones and experimental ones. CPU time for cornering sim ulation using implicit FEM is shorter than that of explicit FEM. (C) 2000 J ohn Wiley & Sons, Inc.