Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC

Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire, LLC

Bridgestone/firestone, Inc.

Thomas R Branca

John L Turner

Neel K Mani

Hans R Dorfi

Stephen M Vossberg

Stanley J Olesky

Hidetoshi Yokota

Brian E Moore

Russell A Moser

Sydney Kelsey

An apparatus and method are disclosed for modeling at least a portion of a rolling tire (). A finite element model of at least a portion of a tire () rolling against a tire contacting surface () is input into a finite element analysis system (). The system executed instructions that result in the application of a constant force to the model tire () or portion thereof by the tire contacting surface (). The application of force control boundary conditions, as opposed to displacement control, provides significant benefit in terms of computational time of the finite element analysis solution. A finite element analysis simulation of the model against the tire contacting surface () is performed while maintaining the force on the model tire (). Alternatively, a camber (&#x3b3;) is also applied to the tire and maintained throughout the simulation.

System and method for steady state simulation of rolling tire

A system and method for modeling a distribution of a tire footprint boundary () include inputting a finite element model of a tire rolling against a road surface described by discrete road surface coordinates into a finite element analysis system (). A finite element analysis simulation of tire model rolling against the road surface for a plurality of time increments is performed. A plurality of tire footprint boundary () data are generated, each having road surface coordinates on which a footprint boundary () overlaps during a unique one of a second plurality of time increments. The number of second plurality of time increments during which the footprint boundary () overlaps the each of the discrete road surface coordinates is determined for each of the time increments of the simulation. For each coordinate, the number of the second plurality of time increments may be associated with a color scale or grayscale ().

System and method for determining statistical distribution of a rolling tire boundary

The invention improves tire flat spotting by providing a bead assembly that has bead filler elements disposed outside the body cords so that the turn up portion of the ply of body cords is disposed immediately back against the main portion of the ply of body cords above the bead core. This carcass structure increases the stiffness of the lower sidewall and decreases the flat spotting experience by the tire. In one embodiment of the invention, a reinforcing ply is wrapped around the bead filler elements to further increases the stiffness of the lower sidewall. In another embodiment, a bead filler element is disposed inside the body cords so that an air pocket is not formed in the carcass during the manufacturing process.

Pneumatic tire having multiple element bead assembly

A method for designing pneumatic tires for rolling conditions employs a finite element tire model configured by an operator. A first set of variables is applied to the tire model and steady state footprint conditions resulting from such application of the variables to the tire model are compared against predetermined footprint constraints to determine if the steady state footprint conditions and the footprint constraints have converged. If they have not, the set of control variables is incremented and the comparison is undertaken again until the steady state footprint conditions in the footprint constraints have converged. The concept of the invention is presented with particular application to a determination of the abrasion energy dissipation or wear potential, cornering stiffness, and residual aligning torque.

Method for designing pneumatic tires for rolling conditions

Growing community of inventors

Bradford, MA, United States of America

Thomas R Branca