Coping With Inflation Pressures

The pressure of higher prices is a major problem confronting the Chinese economy"We will be facing fairly great price pressures in 2008,"said Xie Fuzhan,Director of the National Bureau of Statistics(NBS),on January 24."Even if there are no new fac- tors causing price hikes,the inertia from the rises in 2007 is still devastating."

Development of a Test Rig for Axial Strains Measurement in Automobile Wheel

In automobile wheel application, a test rig is vital and used to simulate conditions of the wheel in service in order to affirm the safety and reliability of the wheel. The present work designed a test rig for measuring axial strains in automobile wheel. The wheel used was a five-arm wheel (6JX14H2;ET 42) and Tyre (175 × 65 R 14). Experimental (EXP) test was carried out, with a radial load of 4750 N and inflation pressure of 0.3 MPa, to measure the axil strains which were converted to maximum principal strain values and, compared with data from Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using Creo-Element/Pro 5.0 at wheel’s contact angles of 90 degree (FEA 90 deg), 40 degree (FEA 40 deg) and 30.25 degree (FEA 30.25 deg), respectively. Results show that at the wheel’s point of contact with the ground, maximum principal strain values were highest at the inboard bead seat with a value of about 5.69 × 10-4 mm/mm, followed by the values at the well of about 5.66 × 10-4 mm/mm. The value at the outboard bead seat was least at about 2.22 × 10-4 mm/mm, which was due to the presence of spikes at this location that tends to resist imposed radial loads. However, the highest mean maximum principal strain values at the locations of inboard, well and outboard, were about 2.11 × 10-4 mm/mm, 3.78 × 10-4 mm/mm and .99 × 10-4 mm/mm, respectively. With the highest single value of about 5.69 × 10-4 mm/mm, the inboard bead seat was the most strained location of the wheel. Overall results showed that all values of maximum principal strains were below the threshold value of about 1 × 10-2 mm/mm. The values obtained for EXP and FEA could be said to be in close agreement when compared with the threshold value. With this in mind, the rig is recommended for use in related experimental procedures.

Numerical simulation of tire/soil interaction using a verified 3D finite element model

The compaction and stress generation on terrain were always investigated based on empirical approaches or testing methods for tire/soil interaction.However,the analysis should be performed for various tires and at different soil strengths.With the increasing capacity of numerical computers and simulation software,finite element modeling of tire/terrain interaction seems a good approach for predicting the effect of change on the parameters.In this work,an elaborated 3D model fully complianning with the geometry of radial tire 115/60R13 was established,using commercial code Solidwork Simulation.The hyper-elastic and incompressible rubber as tire main material was analyzed by Moony-Rivlin model.The Drucker-Prager yield criterion was used to model the soil compaction.Results show that the model realistically predicts the laboratory tests outputs of the modeled tire on the soft soil.

Simulation of vehicle braking behavior on wet asphalt pavement based on tire hydroplaning and frictional energy dissipation

To investigate the influence of wet conditions on vehicle braking behavior,a numerical-analytical method was proposed for the simulation of tire hydroplaning and frictional energy dissipation. First, a finite element model of tire hydroplaning was established using the coupled EulerianLagrangian method,including a pneumatic tire model and a textured asphalt pavement model. Then,the frictional force on the tire-pavement interface at different speeds was calculated by the model. Based on vehicle braking mechanism and frictional energy dissipation,a calculation method for braking distance was proposed based on a three-stage braking process. The proposed method was verified by comparing the calculated hydroplaning speed and braking distance with field test results.Then,vehicle braking distances and wet friction coefficients were calculated under different conditions. The results show that thinner water film,a more complex tread pattern and higher tire inflation pressure all contribute to the vehicle braking performance; moreover, the pavement texture has obvious influence on vehicle braking behavior,especially at a high speed. The proposed method shows great effectiveness in predicting vehicle braking behavior on wet asphalt pavements.