Application of a total lagrangian corotational finite element scheme to inflation of a tire

The aircraft tire may be treated as a composite shell, owing to its nylon-corded rubber ply construction. However, its construction is complex: the ply orientation angles, numbers of plys, ply thicknesses, and even the ply moduli change in the meridional direction (the direction perpendicular to the "rolling" direction). Moreover, the moduli of the materials used in construction span several orders of magnitude (isotropic rubber tread, nylon-corded rubber plys, steel bead wires). These features present a formidable challenge to the use of two-dimensional finite element codes when representing the behavior in individual plys is desired. In the current work, quasi-threedimensional behavior of the tire, including transverse shear warping and thickness stretching, is generated through the finite element technique. The technique is based on the Jaumann stress measures, using a local and layer-wise displacement field to describe the behavior of the shell away from the reference surface. In contrast to stress-resultant models, this technique allows estimation of stresses and strains in individual plys, including interlaminar shear and peeling stresses. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd