Thermal Analysis of Tire

One of the great enemies of rubber compounds is heat. Heat will cause chemical and physical degradation of vulcanized rubber as well as a considerable loss in its strength. A major source of heat generation in a tire is due to internal friction resulting from the viscoelastic deformation of the tire as it rolls along the road. Another source of heat generation in a tire is due to its contact friction with the road. Prediction of the temperature rise at different parts of the tire will help to detect the behavior of the tire as regards its strength and its failure. In the present work, initially the data required for the thermal analysis of the tire are determined which include: the thermal conductivity of rubber compounds, the tire rolling resistance and its heat build-up rate. The thermomechanical analysis of a typical tire then follows based on the thermodynamics of an irriversible process. The mechanical dissipatives, i.e. the hystersis losses are assummed to be the major source of heat in the mathematical formulation. A finite element code is developed for two-dimensional heat transfer analysis of the tire. The results obtained show that the highest temperature rise will occur on the carcass-tread interface in a tire specially at heavy loading and under high speed conditions. Keywords: Heat Generation, Rubber, Contact Friction, Design, Finite Element, Viscoelastic Deformation