Tire/ road dynamic contact; Study of different approaches to modelling of a tire

In terms of safety and environment, reduction of the noise generated by tire vibrations on a road is very significant. In order to study the vibration properties of vehicle tires, various methods have been presented in literature. In most of these methods, the global structure of tires has been modelled as circular ring, orthotropic plate, periodic or full 3- dimensional models. A brief review of the characteristics of these models and comparison of their dynamic behaviour are the main purpose of the current study. The tire is supposed to be subjected to an excitation caused by contact of the tire and road. Study of vibrational responses demonstrates that the validity of each model is limited to a certain frequency range. To employ the circular ring and orthotropic plate models, first, we require to estimate some structural and material data associated to the nature of these models. To this end, the vibrational response of a 3D model is considered to determine some properties such as radial and tangential stiffnesses in circular ring model or bending, foundation stiffness, and tension in orthotropic plate model. Furthermore, the effect of inflation pressure on the dynamic behavior of the mentioned models is examined. For verification, the dynamical behaviour of a tire is studied experimentally. Application of the present study can be contemplated in the prediction of rolling noise and rolling resistance.