Modeling Tire Energy Dissipation for Power Loss Calculations

A mathematical formulation for calculating the energy dissipation in a steadily rolling tire is presented. The formulation uses a nonlinear constitutive equation for the viscoelastic stress response of the tire rubber. The constitutive equation is used in conjunction with information on tire material distribution, the tire temperature field, and the tire deformation field to calculate the unrecovered work done during each rotation of the tire. The required information about the distribution and viscoelastic properties of tire materials can be determined experimentally for real tires or specified for hypothetical tires. The tire temperature and deformation fields may be determined experimentally, provided by other portions of a combined thermo-mechanical tire power loss model, or be specified in any other physically plausible manner.