E.C. Qiu’s scientific contributions

Tire shoulder endurance is one of the main concerns of tire designers as well as the end users. The separation of the tire shoulder will lead to tire failure and usually causes safety problems of vehicles. This work presents an initial analysis on the cause and effect for a typical heavy-duty radial tire structure. Structure parameters and material selection are considered as the main factors affecting the tire shoulder endurance. Stress and strain distributions in the area of the tire shoulder are obtained by using finite element analysis. Rebar elements are used to model the belt as well as the carcass, while the rubbers are modeled by solid elements. Temperature, frequency and strain scan tests are conducted to obtain the dynamical mechanical properties of the rubbers in the shoulder area. In addition, stress-strain properties are obtained through tensile tests. Parameter study is performed to find the optimum compound combination, based on the minimum local shear stress/strains and heat generation. It is argued that the tire material arrangement and compound design should be optimized according to the stress and strain fields of the tire.