| In recent years, the rapid development of China’s automobile industry has become an important pillar industry of national economic. As an important part of the car, tires are also developing rapidly. In recent three decades with the development of tire mechanics, tire FEM as another approach besides the main research experiment drew more and more attention. The major foreign tire companies have gradually established a dedicated tire FEM analysis system, while the domestic tire companies are actively exploring the system, and some have been initially completed. As the first step of finite element simulation analysis system, tire finite element modeling is directly related to the correctness and accuracy of the subsequent simulation analysis. At present, most of the modeling process is done manually. Meshing, material property assignment and the process of establishing the set of elements and surfaces are complicated, time-consuming and error-prone. To solve these problems, a semi-steel radial tire finite element modeling process automation program is developed, which will standardize tire finite element modeling process, saving a lot of modeling time, and reducing the error rate, thus establish the foundation of finite element simulation system.This paper summarized the typical load conditions tire finite element analysis endured, and planned modeling process of tire finite element model based on ABAQUS finite element analysis software. For the three major semi-steel tire material-rubber, cord-rubber and steel, a detailed comparison of the various advantages and disadvantages of the application of the theoretical model were presented, thus establishing the detailed modeling process based on ABAQUS. At last, the overall system design and detailed modeling of process automation development program was planned.Based on AutoCAD secondary development, finite element modeling tire geometry cleanup module was developed with embedded Visual LISP language. Mline and spline which are not supported by CAE were screened and replaced using clearance procedures, thus resolving interface issues between CAD and CAE to achieve smooth transition between the two parts of the geometric model. After completing the pre-cleaning, a program to the prepare the creation of the layer components was developed, based on the tire material components. With this program, parts can be created automatically based on the layer after importing into CAE software, therefore laying the foundation for the subsequent modeling automation.Based on HyperMESH secondary development, semi-steel tire finite element modeling process which contained geometry import and automation cleanup module,, meshing module, finite elements createing modules and material property assignment module, was developed using Tcl/Tk language. The modeling process standardized and automized the time consuming and error-prone processes, using a self-developed GUI interface combined with HyperMESH to minimize steps and simplify the process,with the semi-steel tire finite element model generated by the above simulation modeling process, the tire inflation finite element analysis was undertaken. Under inflation loads, sidewall and tread deformation were significantly while shoulder deformation was rather minor. Belt and bead wire cord beared the most of the inflation pressure. Tire footprint simulation, subsidence and load presented approximately linear relationship. The tire contact patch is approximately oval, but with the load increases it gradually changed to a rectangle. While inflation pressure is small, contact pressure of the tire shoulder would be greater than that of tire tread, which defined as "warp" phenomenon, likely to cause fetal shoulder wear. All above two examples of simulation results are consistent with the actual situation, thus verified the validity of the modeling process automation technology. |
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