Engineering Commons^™

Baseline Rolling Resistance For Tires’ On-Road Fuel Efficiency Using Finite Element Modeling, Jaime Hernandez, Imad L. Al-Qadi, Hasan Ozer

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Calculation of truck tires rolling resistance, using the finite element method and considering variables such as incompressible visco-hyperelastic rubber materials, accurate tire geometry and steady temperature distribution, is presented. The model was validated using experimentally measured contact area and contact stresses. Rolling resistance was calculated for three values of axle load, tire inflation pressure, temperature and speed. In addition, regression analysis was used to propose a mathematical expression for predicting rolling resistance as a function of the considered variables. Finally, the contribution of tire’s rubber components to the internal energy was quantified, and it was found that sidewall and subtread …