Proceedings of the ASME 2009 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences &

Computers and Information in Engineering Conference

IDETC/CIE 2009
August 30 - September 2, 2009, San Diego, California, USA

FEA STUDY OF BELT ANGLE EFFECT TO CORNERING STIFFNESS AND PLY STEER

Min I,u
School of Engineering
Grand Valley State University
355 Kennedy Hall
30 1 W. Fulton Street
Grand Rapids, MI 49504,l.J.S.A.
Email: lurn@rivsu.edu

ABSTRACT tread is linearly proportional to the dis~anceof vauel until the

ikrfonnance of vel~icleturn and lane change can be evaluated tread material reaches its elastic limit, at which the slip occurs.
by cornering stiflness. One of many factors affecting the Furtl~cr assumption which leads to one of thc tire models,
con~cringstiffiiess is belt angle. in 1995, Koishi et a1 [ I ] elastic foundation model, is that the tread rubber inl~nediately
published the findings of cornering stiffness when belt angle is jumps back to its original position when slip occurs (Figure 1).
at 0 and 20 degrees, using a finite elemenl code PAM-SHOCK. The lateral force derived from this elastic foundation model as a
Results from two cases only are not enough completing the function of slip angle, which is defined as the angle between the
paramcvic sludy. With betrer hardware and software avejlable directions of the tire and the vehicle travel, is [2]:
today than before, the same tire model is re-visited, using new
form of nunlericai procedure - a mixed Eulel-ianlbdngrangiar~ I
fonnulation called steady state transport analysis in ABAQUS. I;' =-o/'cx (1)
Cornering stiffness at the range of 0 to 40 degree belt angle 2
with 5 degree increment is calculated. The results show that
three distinct regions exist. At Region 1, in which the belt angle where .is the foundation stiffness, 1 is the iength of thc
ranges from 0-10 degrees, the cornering stiffness increases as conlacling area.
the belt angle increases. The cornering stiffness tnaxilnizes out
and remains Rat at Region 11, when beit angle is betwccn 10 to
25 degrees. Cornering stiffness decreases as fhe belt angle
illcreases in Region 111, whcre the bell angle is larger than 25
degree. The existence of Region II may explain thc fact that
manufacturers prefer around 20 degree belt angle for tlieir tire
designs: maximum c o m e r i ~ ~stiffness
g and its insensitivity to the
belt angle variation. 'The plot of the predicted ply steer in this
study agrees reasonably well with a pubtished experimental
data.
Figure I : Schematic of Sjip Angle ofTurning Vehicle
INTRODUCTION
When vehicle turns, the tread of the tire on the contact arca
between the tire and the road deflects sideways. The corninon To better describe the a~nountof the lateral force developed by
assumption in tire modeling is that the lateral deflection of the each degree of slip angle, cornering stiffness C ,is employed:

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Therefore, the cornering stiffness from the elastic foundation
rnodel is
The typical plot of tire lateral force versus slip angle is shown
in Figure 2. Apparently the eIastic foundation model is
oversimplified, so does other tire modeis like string model and
beam model etc.
Figure 2: lateral Force vs. Slip Angle Ptot [3j
Understanding of tire cornering properties was mainly reiid on
experiments [4,5], which are expensive and difiiculty due to
many variables, Numerical approach such as finite element
analysis cxhibits the advantage over physical testing.
Traditional finite element code uses 1-angrangian for~nulation,
which considers the frame of reference in wl~rchmotion is
described attaching to the material. Therefore the fine meshing
is required for the entire tire model, and a transient ai~alysis
must be performed for tire cornenng. Koishi et al [ I ] modeled a
tire, 175 SR14, and demonstrated the feasibility of tire
cornerjng simulat~nnby using PAM-SI-IOCK, an explicit finite
clement analysis code bascd on Laligrangian formulalion
algorithm. Their model has 5580 ele~nentsand 5670 nodes.
They set the tire inflation pressure to 200 Pa, a vertical load of
3.3 KN and the tire speed at 10 Itrnih. Thc transient analysis for
the duration of 1.2 secolids was pzrfornled, which took more
than 32 hours for 113M RS60001Model 591 computer or about
seven hours for Fujitsu VX-2 machine. The simulated cornering
results agree well with the measured data for the s a n e tire.
Furthermore, they conducted the parametric study, including
two cases of belt angle effect: bcit angle at 0 degree and 20
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degrecs. They conciude that thc cornering force of the lire with
O degree beli angle is about 67% of th&,se with the 20 dcgrce
belts.
Computer is much faster nowadays than a decade ago, and
co~nputationalprocedures are improved as well. Thosc make it
possible to perforin the full parametric study of thc belt angic
effect to the cornering stiffness. 'This paper presents such a
resuit from the same tire as I<oislri used and he finite element
code ABAQUS is employed.
ABAQUS TIRE MODEL [6]
Attaching a reference frame to the tire center, the geotnctrical
points rclative to the reference frame are not moving (r~gid
body) although the tire inaterial is moving along (defonnable).
Describing the tire rotation (rigid body) in Euierian manner and
the tire deformation in matcrial in Lagrangian manner, it creates
a mixed Euieriar~/Langrangian formuIation algorithm which
allows the tine mesh only in the tire and the road contact rcglon,
wilicb results in the rcduced DOF of the nod el. This mixed
Eulcrian and Langrangian rbrtnation is implerncnted 111
ABAQUS code and is tentled as steady state transport analysis.
ABAQUS Example Problem Manual presents a steady-state lire
modcl using the samc tire as Kaishi's for the cornet~iiiganalysis,
and the same results are regencrated in much faster way. It is
recommended to read ABAQUS Exainple Manual for detail,
however, a brief summary a f modeling process describesbelow:
The modei starts with half of the tire cross-section. and then
using SYMMETRIC MODEL GENERATION and
SYMMETRIC RESlJLTS 'TRANSFER commands to conslrucl
a full 313 mode! for cornering simu1atio1-i. 'I'ilc cornertng
analysis takes three separate steps:
1 .) The fuil breaking analysis: It is achievcd by setting thc
angular velocity of the rotating tire at 8 I-ads, less than
its estimated free roiling point where angular velocity
ranges between 8.78 - 9.44 radis.
2.) Full breaking and traction analysis: It is achievcd by
setting thc angular velocity in the range of8-- 10 radis
so that the tire experiences full breaking and full
traction.
3.) Slip angle analysis: Setting the slip angle in 0-3
degrees, the lateral force is calculated.
Due to thc anglcd belt wire of the tire, the lateral force at zero
slip angle is unable to be balanced perfectly. This phenomenon
is called ply steer. Therefore, the simulation of ply steer al
various belt angle is as simple as serting the slip angle at zero.
RESULTS A N D DlSCUSSlON
Using this ABAQUS tire model and varying the belt angle fionl
0-40 degrees in 5 degree increment, the caiculafed lateral force
versus the slip angle is plotted in Figure 3. Converting those to
Copyright © 2009 by ASME
 thc carnering stiffness as defined in Eq.(2), the plot of cornering PLY STEER
stiffness versus slip angie is obtaincd as shown in Figure 4. It is Reference 171 presents the measured ply steer versus belt angle
seen from this figure that three distinct regions exist: for the radial tires with beit anglc from 15 to 40 dcgtees in 5
* Region I: degrcc incremenr. Regencrating those experi~ncnlaldata in tiic
Bcll angle: 0-10 degrees. same plot with the simulated results as shown in Figurc 5 , it is
Feature: The cornering stifhess increases as the belt seen that both agree reasonably well, especially when the belt
angle increases. angie is large.
Region 11:
Belt angle: 10-25 degrees.
Fealure: The cornering stiffness maxinlizes out and
remains flat.
* Region 111:
Belt angle greater than 25 degrees.
Feature. The cornering stiliess decreases as the belt
angle increases.

Beit Angle {Dogme)

Figure 5 : Comparison of Measured and Si~nulatedPly Steer

COMCLUSIQM
Three distinguish regions exist in the plot of cornering stifYncss
versus the belt angie: Region I, the belt angle from 0-10
0 a5 1 15 2 23 3 35
I
degrees; Region 11, fi'om 10-25 degrees and Region Ill, greater
Slip dnglc I d ~ g r e l l
than 25 degree. At Region 1, the cornering stiffness increases as
the belt angle increases. Fhe cornering stiffincss maximias out
Figure 3: Lateral Force vs. Slip Angle and remains flat at Region 11. 1t decreases as ~ h cbelt angic
increases in Region 111 The existence of Region II may cxplar~i
the fact that manufdcturers prefer around 20 degrcc belt angle
for their tires. Tlie predicted ply steer agrecs reasonably well
with the measurement data from a pubiished sourcc.

REFERENCES
[I] M. ICoishi, I<. Icrtbe, and M. Shiratori, '.Tire Comering
Siinulatlon Using an Explict Finite Element Analysis Code",
Tire Science and Technology, TS'TCA, Vol. 26, No. 2, April-
June 1998, pp. 109- 1 19.
' 0- . , ........ ............ ............. ~ 121 Dixon, J., Tires, Suspension and Handling, Second Edition,
u 5 10 1s 25 30 35 no 46:
Belt angle (degree)
SAE and Arnold, 1996.
-- .. ... ...... [3] Gillespie, 'l'.D., Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics, SAE,
1992.
Figure 4: Cornering Stiffness vs. Belt Angle [4] Clark, S.K., The Mechanics of Pileulnatic Tires, IJS
Department of Transportation, DOT-14s-805-952, 198 1 .
For the purpose of the maximum cornering stiff~~ess, which [ 5 ] Lazeration J.J., An Investigation ofthe Slip of a Tire Tread,
means the maximum lateral force with a singic degree of slip Tire Science and 'I~echnology, TSTCA, Vo1.25, No.2, April-
angie, the tire design should place thc belt angle in 15 to 25 June, 1997, pp.78-95.
degree range. The insensitivity to the belt angle variations of'the [S]AUAQUS 6.7 Manual, 2007.
cornering stiffness at Region II adds another benefit to thc tire: [7j Pottinger, M.G, Ply Steer in Radial Carcass Tires, SAIX
stable performance in corncring in the environment which may Paper 76073 3 , 1876.
causc the variation of belt angle, such as temperature or tire
inflation pressure change etc, As a nlatfer of fact, tire
manufactrtrers prefer around 20 degree belt angie for their tires
121.

Copyright © 2009 by ASME

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