DYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF A RADIAL TIRE BY FINITE ELEMENTS AND MODAL EXPANSION

Abstract Doubly curved, axisymmetric shell finite elements and the modal expansion approach are used to investigate the linear dynamic response of an automotive radial tire, with particular focus on the frequency response, the travelling sinusoidal load response, and the response spectrum due to a random pavement. For the travelling sinusoidal load response it is shown that, depending upon the natural frequency spectrum of the tire, the vehicle velocity, and the distance-based frequency of the pavement profile, certain modes dominate the response at specific vehicle velocities. For the random pavement the tire response increases with vehicle velocity.