Baseline rolling resistance for tires’ on-road fuel efficiency using finite element modeling

Abstract

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 were the most relevant. The results of this study will help differentiate the contribution of pavement parameters, such as mean profile depth and international roughness index, to fuel efficiency.

Keywords:

• Rolling resistance
• fuel efficiency
• tire modelling
• energy loss
• coefficient of rolling resistance

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation [grant number ACI-1053575].