Session: 03-08-01: Micromechanics and Multiscale Modeling

Paper Number: 121578

121578 - Variational Asymptotic Analysis of Beam-Like Cord-Rubber Composites 

Slender cord-rubber composites, such as electric cables and pneumatic tire beads, possess wide engineering applications. The composite nature of such structures requires sophisticated modeling capabilities. Micromechanics has been used to efficiently analyze tire performance of information afforded by elements at much smaller scales. This technical paper discusses an example of leveraging multiscale modeling technologies to analyze beam-like cord-rubber composites. For example, beads for pneumatic tires usually comprise many turns of hard drawn steel wire.  The multiple wire feature ensures a degree of lateral flexibility while maintaining the hoop stiffness. This composite configuration enables the key anisotropic structural function, fitting and anchoring the inflated tire to the rim to maintain driving and braking reactions. However, it is very challenging to include the detailed mesh of bead wire and rubber coating with elements of about 0.05mm into the tire-level simulation, especially when the tire model is processed by an explicit solver. Therefore, advanced multiscale structural analysis approach is used to tackle this type of numerical prediction. Nonlinear variational asymptotic method is applied to analyze the cross-sectional properties, i.e., extensional stiffness, bending stiffness, and twisting rigidity of the bead, in light of the assumption of Euler-Bernoulli beam model. Together with the bead cross-sectional geometry, these beam properties are used to calculate the effective 3D material properties for tire level simulation.

Presenting Author: Fang Jiang Envision Energy

Presenting Author Biography: Fang Jiang earned his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. He is currently a wind turbine blade structural design engineer. His research interest is computational structural mechanics.