Citation

Neves RRV, Micheli GB, Alves M. Int. J. Impact Eng. 2010; 37(6): 685-693.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2009.10.001

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Several factors should be considered in the design phase of a vehicle model, safety being perhaps one of the most important. There are several design solutions to improve the passive safety of a vehicle, like the proper management of collision energy via the plastic collapse of some structural parts. However, in various accident scenarios, it is evident that the driver acts in order to prevent, or at least to mitigate, damage. For driver action to be effective hinges upon the interaction between the vehicle tyres and the road. In this sense, the design of tyres against failure caused by impact loads is of fundamental importance, which arises in automotive collision situations.

A key issue in the design of tyres is their capability to sustain intense impact loads. Hence, the development of a reliable experimental data basis is important, against which numerical models can be compared. Experimental data on tyre impact in the open literature is somewhat rare. In this article, a specially design rig was developed for tyre impact tests. It holds the test piece in a given position, allowing a drop mass with a round indenter to hit pressurised tyres with different impact energies. A high-speed camera and a laser velocimeter were used to track the impact event. From the laser measurement it was possible to obtain the impact force and the local indentation. A finite element study was then conducted using material properties from the open literature. By comparing the experimental measurements with the numerical results, it became evident that the model was capable of predicting the major features of the impact of a mass on a tyre. This model is therefore of value for the assessment of the performance of a tyre in extreme cases of mass impact.