The tribological performance identification of a tire tread block during friction contact: A numerical investigation

The tribological performance of tire such as braking capacity (related to contact force) and abrasion resistance (related to surface stress) can be identified through the investigation of the friction contact between tire and road. However, it is difficult to investigate the distribution of contact forces and stress of the tire surface experimentally. As a friction contact model between a tire tread and road surface, a tread block model in contact with a rigid surface is studied here numerically to investigate the distribution of contact forces and stress on its surface. The tread material is a Reinforced Styrene Butadiene Rubber and depicted as a plane strain shape of 15 mm x 10 mm dimension. Analysis was carried out in a constant sliding speed of 300 mm/s with various depths of indentation. Mechanical properties of tread block material was modelled as a hyper -elastic type. The contact forces and stress distribution on the tread block surface were obtained. Results show that dynamic or stick -slip phenomena are observed along friction contact. With respect to the tread block surface coordinate, the surface stress at leading edge is much larger than trailing edge.