Title: Modal analysis of a rolling truck tyre subjected to inflation pressure and vertical deflection

Authors: Shahram Shokouhfar; Subhash Rakheja; Moustafa El-Gindy

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ' Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ' Department of Automotive, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Abstract: Modal analysis of a rolling truck tyre under inflation pressure and vertical deflection is conducted to determine its natural frequencies and mode shapes. A 3-D finite element model of a radial-ply truck tyre is used considering its multi-layered composite structure. The nonlinear effects of the inflation pressure, vertical load and rolling speed are incorporated in the analysis through an explicit dynamic simulation to determine the stress state throughout the tyre at instants when the modal characteristics are desired. The eigenvalues are subsequently extracted at three key moments when the tyre reaches the steady state after application of the inflation pressure, vertical deflection and rolling speed. For a deflected tyre, the conjugate mode frequencies, being identical for an inflated tyre, diverged to two different frequencies with one being lower and the other higher than the corresponding frequency of the tyre under inflation alone. The influences of the inflation pressure, vertical load and rolling speed on tyre natural frequencies are obtained through the development of a computationally efficient algorithm to automate the tyre model reformulations for parametric studies.

Keywords: rolling tyre models; natural frequencies; complex mode shapes; modal analysis; intermittent eigenvalue extraction; finite element method; FEM; LS-DYNA; 3D modelling; tyre pressure; tyre inflation pressure; vertical deflection; truck tyres; multi-layered tyre structure; tyre modelling; vertical load; rolling speed; radial-ply tyres; radial tyres; tyre model reformulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVSMT.2016.077928

International Journal of Vehicle Systems Modelling and Testing, 2016 Vol.11 No.2, pp.116 - 141

Received: 22 Dec 2015
Accepted: 04 Mar 2016
Published online: 22 Jul 2016 *

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