Investigation of Tire-Soil Interaction with Analytical and Finite Element Method#

This article is devoted to the modeling of tire–soil interaction with the analytical and finite element method (FEM). Different from the traditional tire–soil interaction models in which the contact between tires and soils is described by nonlinear springs in the normal direction, the new analytical model added dampers accounting for the soil damping effects. A nonlinear three-dimensional tire–soil interaction model with the FEM, which takes into consideration the tire treads and belt/carcass layers, was validated by measuring tire vertical stiffness and contact stress. The conversion of the Modified Drucker-Prager/Cap soil model to the analytical soil model was demonstrated as well. The simulations for investigating the dynamic behavior of a bias tire running on the soft soil were performed. Good agreement was observed based on the simulation results obtained from these two tire–soil interaction models. However, experimental validation is necessary before the models can be further applied in the prediction of off-road vehicle dynamics.