Three-dimensional modeling of tires

Modeling the stress-strain state of pneumatic tires in the conditions of steady-state and transient rolling is of interest for mechanics of composites and computational mechanics and important from the applied point of view. Mechanical models of various levels of complexity can be used for numerical modeling. In quite a few papers, the corresponding models are derived from the theory of orthotropic shells [1]. However, more thorough and accurate studies of the stress-strain state can be carried out on the basis of three-dimensional models based on the elasticity or viscoelasticity equations. As far as Russian authors are concerned, this approach has first been suggested and implemented in [2]. Another, combined approach uses both the shell theory and the three-dimensional equations of elasticity theory [3, 4]. This approach is reasonable, because the tire structure includes both volumes filled with rubber and thin layers of the rubber cord. The rubber cord layers can be considered as a composite whose structural components possess very different properties. Also, it is quite admissible to consider the rubber cord as a structure periodic in the horizontal projection. Note that the mathematical theory of periodic composites has been developed in [5]. Owing to strong anisotropy and inhomogeneity of the material, large shape distortions of the tire, and, in some cases, its large deformations, viscoelastic properties of rubber play an important role, so that the mechanic model of the tire turns out to be quite complex. The large property differences between various structural components make the matrix of the resulting system of linear equations ill-conditioned, which complicates its numerical solution [6]. In this paper, theoretical aspects of a three-dimensional tire model and its numerical implementation are considered.