Method for simulating the thermomechanical behavior of a tire rolling on the ground

Abstract

A process for simulating the physical behavior of a vehicle tire rolling on the ground with which the tire tread has an area of contact including at least one adherent contact zone and at least one sliding contact zone, which process includes at least modeling operations, wherein the modeling operations, by applying physical laws that are known and/or developed by specific experimentation, as a first model, a model of the longitudinal forces (Fx), the transverse forces (Fy), and a self-alignment torque (Mz), including an adherence coefficient and a shear modulus of the rubber of the tire, and on the basis of dynamic parameters associated with the physical conditions of rolling and use of the tire, in which the self-alignment torque is associated with the intensity of the longitudinal and transverse forces and their distribution in the contact area, a second model of a local heating model expressing variations in a temperature of contact of the tread with the ground, and a third model of a general heating and thermal flux model, in which said third model in a peripheral tread temperature and an internal tire temperature, a coefficient of thermal conductivity of the tread, and phenomena with a thermodynamic component such as internal deformations of the tire, heat transfers between the tire and its environment, and slip of the tread on the ground, in which at least the adherence coefficient and the shear modulus are involved in the first models as variable.