Patent ID: 6871162

Claim:
A method for performing a computerized thermomechanical analysis of a tire design at a desired inflation and load to be used to obtain a desired temperature destribution in a rolling tire, comprising: creating a finite element analysis model of the tire having a first plurality of elements, the first plurality of elements of the model comprising a plurality of tire compounds (TC) having elastic material properties (G′) and loss moduli (G″); performing a baseline computer run, comprising performing a structural analysis, at temperature t 0 , of the first plurality of elements using baseline elastic material properties (G′ 0 ), performing an energy dissipation analysis using baseline loss moduli (G″ 0 ), calculating energy dissipated per unit volume of the first plurality of element per cycle (Q 0 ); using the computer, performing a perturbation run, comprising performing the structural analysis, at temperature t 0 , of the first plurality of elements using perturbation elastic material properties (G′ 1 ) of first plurality of tire compounds, performing the energy dissipation analysis using perturbation loss moduli (G″ 1 ), calculating energy dissipated per unit volume of the first plurality of elements per cycle (Q 1 ); calculating deformation indices (m) for the first plurality of elements by the following equation: m = log ⁢ ⁢ ( Q 1 / Q 0 ) - log ⁢ ⁢ ( G 1 ″ / G 0 ″ ) log ⁢ ⁢ ( G 1 ′ / G 0 ′ ) + 1 ; and performing a thermal finite element analysis run to obtain temperature distribution and energy loss in the tire with the first plurality of elements comprising a plurality of tire compounds while updating the element heat fluxes in a tire finite element thermal model according to an equation: Q . t = Q . t0 ⁡ ( G t ′ G t0 ′ ) m - 1 ⁢ G t ″ G t0 ″ where, {dot over (Q)} t =Element heat flux at temperature t {dot over (Q)} t0 =Element heat flux at reference temperature t 0 G′ t , G″ t =Storage and loss moduli at temperature t G′ t0 , G″ t0 =Storage and loss moduli at temperature t 0 m=Deformation index repeating the structural and thermal analysis runs with at least a second plurality of elements of a plurality of tire compounds; and selecting the plurality of elements of a plurality of tire compounds with a more desirable temperature destribution.