Ford Global Technolgoies, LLC

Joanna Rakowska

Kenneth Nero Morman, Jr

Sheng-Yuan Hsu

A method has been invented for predicting the build-up of heat, material aging, and subsequent belt separation failure in rolling steel-belted pneumatic tires (). The procedure employs finite element analysis and a new fatigue crack propagation model that takes output generated by the finite element model to predict distance and time to belt separation in the tire. The finite element model uses input information on tire load, speed and inflation pressure () to calculate the temperature and energy release rate at the corresponding tips of the fatigue crack to generate four-dimensional response surfaces of crack-tip energy release rate as a function of crack length, crack-tip circumferential angular position, and crack-tip temperature. The fatigue crack propagation model samples the response surface and is numerically integrated to predict distance and/or time to belt separation failure ().

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Farmington Hills, MI, United States of America

Joanna Rakowska