Hydroplaning Analysis for Tire Rolling over Water Film with Various Thicknesses Using the LS-DYNA Fluid-Structure Interactive Scheme

Current work studies the transient hydroplaning behavior of 200 kPa inflated pneumatic radial tires with various types of tread patterns. Tires were numerically loaded with a quarter car weight of 4 kN, and then accelerated from rest rolling over a water film with a thickness of 5, 10 and 15 mm on top of a flat pavement. Tire structure is composed of outer rubber tread and inner fiber reinforcing composite layers. The Mooney-Rivlin constitutive law and the classical laminated theory (CLT) were, respectively, used to describe the mechanical behavior of rubber material and composite reinforcing layers. The tire hydroplaning phenomenon was analyzed by the commercial finite element code - LS-DYNA. The Arbitrary Lagrangian & Eulerian (ALE) formulation was adopted to depict the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) behavior. Three different tire tread patterns, i.e. the smooth (blank) tread pattern and the 9 and 18 mm wide longitudinally-grooved tread patterns, were constructed to perform the current transient hydroplaning analysis. Simulated dynamic normal contact force and hydroplaning velocity of tire with a prescribed smooth tread pattern were obtained. The computed results were in good agreement with the numerical and test results given by Okano, et al. (2001) for tire running over 10 mm thick water fluid film. In addition, dynamic contact force of a smooth tread pattern tire rolling on a dry flat pavement was also found to be close to the result reported by Nakajima, et al. (2000). In addition, the effect of fluid water layer thickness on the hydroplaning velocity and normal contact force for tires with smooth tread pattern and longitudinally-grooved tread patterns rolling on a wet roadway analyzed by the LS-DYNA code are reported and discussed.