Static and dynamic finite element analysis of pneumatic tyres including anisotropic and nonlinear effects

This thesis introduces a versatile finite element package, which is tailored for the static and dynamic analysis of radial tyres. A new axisymmetric solid-of-revolution element which takes into consideration, large deformation, the influence of composite orthotropic material and the viscoelasticity and the nonlinearity of the material properties, has been developed for a general loaded tyre. The finite element package has been verified by comparing its results with available analytical, numerical and experimental results. A full static and dynamic investigation has been carried out for a commercial tyre 175 HR 14 and results obtained by using the package have been compared with available experimental results developed by DUNLOP or carried out at Cranfieid. The package has proved to be reliable, flexible, efficient, economic and accurate. The numerical instability problems which are prevalent in this type of analysis have been overcome by the derivation of a developed Newton-Raphson iterative scheme.