A novel mechanical model of tires with interface parameters for damage evolution research

Abstract

In this paper, a novel full-scale tire finite element model with cohesive interface was developed to calculate the stress and strain states of the interface between cord layers. Under certain operating conditions, tire damage manifests as internal interface cracking, which is challenging to observe through external tire performance. However, traditional finite element models of tires fail to capture the mechanical behavior and damage mechanisms of these internal interfaces, so, it is essential to develop effective computational methods to accurately assess interface stress states. In this study, a full-scale tire finite element model with cohesive element interface was developed, based on the interface parameters from rubber-cord composites experiments. Through the analysis under various loading conditions, the results show that the tire model containing cohesive interface could effectively identify the stress and strain concentration on the interface near the tire shoulder, which was a significant improvement compared with the traditional tire model. Furthermore, the study optimized the belt layer angle based on this model, providing critical insights for tire structural design optimization, specifically, when the angle of belt layers is less than 10°, the stress state at the tire shoulder interface would be significantly better than in other cases.