Over the years finite element (FE) tire models have been successfully utilized in the area of tire design, tire research and vehicle performance. This is largely due to the improvements in hardware computational facilities and the continuing emergence of user friendly commercial FE codes, which have encouraged the use of such models for a wide variety of applications. Despite these developments, the application of appropriate FE tire models for extreme conditions such as those experienced during vehicles sudden impact with roadside hardware is still not widely used. One reason may be concerns that crash simulations do not fully replicate real crash events. As vehicle behavior during such impact event is often influenced by the interaction of the tire with roadside hardware, existing tire models are not sophisticated enough to handle such extreme situations which are well beyond normal tire operating conditions. In view of this, the current study aims to develop an enhanced tire model that provides a realistic tire behavior representation for vehicle crash simulations. The modeling methodology in terms of the geometrical details, material characterization, and tire failure mode implementation is discussed. The comparison between FE vehicle model predictions using the enhanced tire model and some crash test results are also presented.

Keywords:  Finite element tire models, Vehicle safety, Crash simulation, LS-DYNA®, Roadside hardware