Development of the Flexible Ring on an Elastic Continuous Foundation Tire Model for Planar Vibration of the Heavy Load Radial Tire

Abstract

This paper investigates the planar vibration characteristic of heavy load radial tires with a large flat ratio. A proposed tire model with a flexible ring on an elastic continuous foundation is investigated utilizing kinematic modeling and experimental modal analysis. Planar coupling deformation of the radial and tangential direction is considered to enrich the kinematic characteristic of the flexible belt and the continuous sidewall; a flexible ring on an elastic continuous foundation tire model is proposed to investigate the coupling vibration characteristic between the flexible belt and the continuous sidewall. In-extensibility assumption is utilized to simplify the proposed tire model and the planar vibration modal features of the heavy load radial tire are discussed. The variation of the inflation pressure on the radial and tangential stiffness of the sidewall spring model is enriched into the flexible ring on an elastic continuous foundation tire model to extend the modal prediction of the tires with a different inflation pressure. Taking the relative error between the experimental and analytical modal resonance frequency of the tested tire with a different inflation pressure as the object value, structural parameters of the proposed tire model are identified by a backward genetic algorithm. Experimental and theoretical results show that: the planar coupling vibration characteristic of the heavy load radial tire can be predicted precisely with the flexible ring on an elastic continuous foundation tire model; meanwhile, considering the linear variations of the radial and tangential sidewall stiffness due to the inflation pressure, the proposed tire model can be extended to analyze the vibration characteristic of the heavy load radial tire with a different inflation pressure.