Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences &

Computers and Information in Engineering Conference

IDETC/CIE 2012
August 12-15, 2012, Chicago, IL, USA

DETC2012-70664

NONLINEAR MATERIAL MODELING OF A TRUCK TIRE, PAVEMENT, AND ITS

EFFECT ON CONTACT STRESSES

1 1
Seunghye Kim Kwangwon Kim
Graduate Research Assistant Graduate Research Assistant
seunghye@kau.ac.kr kkw@kau.ac.kr

Jaehyung Ju2 Doo-Man Kim1

Assistant Professor Professor
jaehyung.ju@unt.edu dmkim@kau.ac.kr
1
School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Korea Aerospace University
Goyang-City, Republic of Korea
2
Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering
University of North Texas
Denton, TX 76203

ABSTRACT should be designed to withstand vehicle loads which are

For an accurate evaluation of the failure stress of tire and
pavement materials, both the tire and pavement need to be
modeled as nonlinear materials. In this study, a hyperelastic
model of a truck tire and an elasto-viscoplastic model for
pavement are implemented and their interaction effect on
contact stresses is investigated. Finite element (FE) analysis
with ABAQUS is used to simulate the interaction models of the
truck tire and pavement. The interaction of hyperelastic and
elasto-viscoplastic models for a truck tire and pavement shows
accurate contact pressure for the truck tire and accurate stress
distribution of the pavement.
Key Words: Pavement, Nonlinear material models, Truck tires,
Pavement, Tire/Pavement interaction, Finite Element (FE)
analysis, Stress distribution
INTRODUCTION
transferred through the tires. The contact stresses between a tire
and pavement are a primary factor in evaluating their failure.
Moreover, the proper modeling of structures, taking into
consideration the nonlinear geometric and material effects of
the tire and pavement, is important when evaluating the contact
stresses.
In general, tire engineers attempt to analyze tire behavior
with nonlinear material models and a simple linear elastic
model [3-6] or a rigid pavement model [7, 8]. However,
analysis results using the rigid pavement model cannot provide
the stress distribution with respect to the pavement. The simple
elastic material model of concrete is also not able to provide an
accurate stress distribution for pavement [4]. The simple linear
elastic model may be beneficial in terms of lowering
computational expenses. However, it may not sufficiently
provide an accurate evaluation of tire-pavement interaction.

Tires make contact with pavement and directly deliver the

axial loads of a vehicle. Stresses caused by the load transmitted As opposed to tire engineers, when pavement engineers
from the tires are distributed on each layer of the pavement and analyze pavement, they use either a simple tire model with
gradually distributed to a wide area in the lower layer[1-3]. linear elastic material approximation [9-11] or the pre-defined
Thus, the composition and thickness of each layer of pavement contact pressure of the tire [12-14]. An analysis using a simple

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 tire model does not consider the hyperelastic nonlinear stress-
strain behavior of the rubber [9-11]. An analysis considering the
non-uniform contact pressure of a tire shows improved stress
distribution on pavement compared with the simple elastic tire
model. [12-14]. However, more often, contact pressure is
obtained without considering the material properties of
pavement. On the other hand, some studies have avoided using
the nonlinear hyperelastic tire model [10, 12]. Due to the over-
simplified contact pressure model which is pre-defined without
considering non-uniform contact stresses, maximum stress
values have often been underestimated.

In this study, the effects of a nonlinear hyperelastic model

of a truck tire and an elasto-viscoplastic model of pavement on
contact stresses are investigated. The results with the nonlinear
material models are compared with the predefined contact ( a) Truck tire cross-section
pressure for a tire. A three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE)
analysis with ABAQUS is used for simulating the various
interaction models of a truck tire and pavement and for
investigating the distribution and plastic deformation at each
layer of pavement.

TRUCK TIRE FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

The structure of a pneumatic truck tire is reviewed briefly

in this section. The general components of a truck tire in this
study are shown in Figure 1(a). The bead attaches the tire to the
rim and wraps the end of the cord fabric. The sidewall between
the shoulder and bead is flexible, protects the carcass and
enhances the ride. The carcass supports the air pressure and
vertical load, and also absorbs shocks [7]. The shoulder is
located between the tread and the sidewall and is the thickest
part of the tire because it needs to spread the heat generated
within the tire while driving. The belt, which is between the
41.694kN
tread and the carcass, acts to reinforce the tire. [7]. It increases
the rigidity of the tread by tightly winding around the carcass.
The tread is the part in direct contact with the road surface ( b) Truck tire FE model
layer. It is composed of thick rubber.
Figure 1 Truck tire model

Pavement damage by wide-based truck tires is known to

be more severe than damage from passenger car tires because
of the heavier vehicle weights. [8].In this study, a 385/65R 22.5
truck tire is selected for finite element modeling. A meshed FE
model of the truck tire in ABAQUS is shown in Figure 1(b).
The bead, the sidewall and the tread are modeled with an eight-
node linear brick element (C3D8R in ABAQUS) with reduced
integration and hourglass control options. A relatively thin bead
and carcass are modeled with a four-node doubly curved shell
element (S4R in ABAQUS) using reduced integration,
hourglass control, and finite membrane strain options.

Table 1 shows the material properties of the belt and

carcass.

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 Table 1 Properties of a pneumatic tire [9]
Young’s Modulus
Part Poisson’s ratio
(Kgf/mm²)
Belt 1 8490 0.3
Belt 2 8740 0.3
Belt 3 8740 0.3
Belt 4 8470 0.3
Carcass 8490 0.3

The tread, the sidewall and the shoulder are made of a

rubber compound. The mechanical properties of the rubber are
modeled with the Ogden hyperelastic material model, which
shows nonlinear stress-strain behavior. The strain energy
function of the Ogden material model and its coefficients are
shown in Equation (1) and Table 2, respectively.
Figure 2 Truck tire force-deflection curve

W  1 , 2 , 3    i  1  2  3  3
N
i i i (1)
i 1 i
PAVEMENT FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

where λi is the principal stretch in the ith direction, and μi and αi In this section, a pavement model for finite analysis is
are the material constants. introduced. A multi-layered pavement model is used with hoy
mixed asphalt (HMA), a base and sub-grade layers, which are
150mm, 300mm, and 450mm in depth, respectively, as shown
Table 2 Coefficients of the Ogden hyperelastic strain energy in Figure 3. The x-axis represents the tire’s longitudinal
function for polyurethane and synthetic rubber [10] direction and the y-axis represents the tire’s lateral direction.
The displacements in the x and y directions of surface X, which
i μi (MPa) αi
is made by the z-direction and y-direction, and surface Y, which
1 13.36 1.63 is made by the z-direction and x-direction, are 0. The
displacement in the z direction is set to be free.
2 -6.63 1.90
3 0.06 -2.46

A typical truck tire air pressure (830kPa) is chosen in this

study. In order to estimate the contact stresses of the truck tire
with ABAQUS, a two step loading scenario is applied based on
a previous study [2]; a truck tire is inflated to a pressure of
830kPa, followed by a vertical load of 41.694kN at the rim
center.

Figure 2 shows the force-deflection behavior of the truck

tire when the 41.694kN vertical force is applied at the rim
center. The global behavior of the truck tire shows a nonlinear
geometric effect. When the vertical force is applied, the truck
tire has a vertical deflection of 14mm. More often, a simplified
tire model with a linear elastic material model for a tire is used
for a pavement stress analysis. The linear elastic force-
deflection behavior is also shown in Figure 2 with a vertical
stiffness for comparison with the nonlinear behavior.

Figure 3 Pavement model

Table 4 shows the elastic properties of each part of the

pavement.

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 Table 4 Material properties of pavement [4]
Young’s
Layer Poisson’s ratio
modulus (Mpa)
HMA 150 0.36
Base 96.5 0.40
Subgrade 75.8 0.45

The HMA material is modeled as an elasto-viscoplastic

material. A creep model is used to represent the viscoplastic
strain as a contributor to permanent deformation. Regression
analyses were conducted to convert these polynomial functions (a) 2D contour plot of contact pressure
using the stress power law given by Equation (2) [11].

 p  A nt m (2)

𝜀𝑝̇ : Equivalent strain rate

A : Power law multiplier

n : Equivalent deviatoric stress order

m : Total time or creep strain order

Table 3 Coefficients of the polynomial function

for HMA [11]
Coefficients Value

0.47116ⅹ10
-5
A
(b) 3D contour plot of contact pressure
n 0.8159
m -0.78 Figure 4 Contact pressure of a pneumatic tire

ANALYSIS OF FULL TRUCK TIRE CONTACT

PRESSURE

Figure 4 shows the contact pressure of a truck tire when a
vertical force of 41.694kN (163lbs) is applied at the hub center
of the tire. Elliptical contact areas are obtained with the truck
tire, as can be seen in Figure 4(a). The maximum contact
pressure value is 1.2MPa at the vertical force. Figure 4(b)
shows the 3D predefined contact pressure profile of the truck
tire. It shows relatively even contact pressure along the
longitudinal direction. A low contact pressure is observed at the
edge of the lateral direction.
PAVEMENT STRESS DISTRIBUTION
In terms of pavement design, stress analysis is important
for tire loading. Pavement engineers have used a predefined
contact pressure when designing pavement. In order to estimate
the validity of the predefined contact pressure model, we
compare the stresses caused by interactions between the
pavement and the nonlinear tire model (Type A) with those
from the predefined contact pressure (Type B).

Figure 5 shows the stress distribution of elasto-viscoplastic

pavement viewed from above in cross-section form for the
Type A interaction. The contact area on the top surface exactly

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 matches the contact area of the tire shown in Figure 4(a). The
stress distribution for the cross-section is shown in Figure 5(b),
which shows discontinuous stress distribution between the
HMA, the base and the subgrade due to their different moduli
with each material. The maximum von Mises stress of 0.63MPa
is obtained on the HMA ply.

( b) Cross-section view

Figure 6 von Mises stress distribution of pavement from

Type A interaction

The von Mises stress distribution of an elasto-viscoplastic

pavement model in which a predefined contact pressure is
applied to the pavement, referred to as a Type B interaction, is
Figure 5 Predefined contact pressure
shown in Figure 6. A predefined contact pressure is used for the
contact pressure of an actual truck tire from the Type A
interaction. As can be seen in Figure 6(a), the contact area of
pavement in the Type B interaction is larger than the contact
area of the predefined contact pressure from the Type A
interaction. The von Mises stress distribution of the pavement
for the Type B interaction is shown in Figure 6(b). The von
Mises stresses on the pavement created by the predefined
contact pressure (Type B) interaction are lower than those of
the real truck tire model (Type A). This is because the
predefined contact pressure was derived from the average of the
contact pressure of each groove. The maximum value of the
predefined contact pressure is 0.8MPa, which is lower than the
maximum contact pressure (1.2MPa) in Figure 4.

( a) Top view

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 ( a) Top view
( a) Top view

( b) Vertical displacement
( b) Cross-section view (Cross-section view of lateral direction)

Figure 8 Plastic deformation of pavement from Type A

Figure 7 von Mises stress distribution of pavement from
Type B interaction
Figure 7 shows the plastic deformation of pavement which
occurred in the Type A interaction on the top surface (a) and on
the cross-section (b). As can be seen in Figure 7(a), the area on
the top surface has a maximum deformation of 1.3mm in the z
direction, which matches the contact area of the groove from
the full truck tire. The deformation of pavement which occurred
in the Type A interaction on the cross-section is obtained from
the top surface to subgrade HMA across all plies.
interaction
The plastic deformation of the pavement caused by the
predefined contact pressure (Type B) is shown in Figure 8 on
the top surface (a) and on the cross-section (b). The maximum
deformation of 1.347mm from the Type B interaction, which
also matches the contact area of the groove from the full truck
tire and is lower than the maximum deformation of the Type A
interaction due to the maximum contact pressure of Type B, is
lower than that of Type A. As can be shown in figure 8 (b), the
deformed area is larger than the one by Type A interaction.

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 ( a) Top view

Figure 10 Averaged von Mises stresses on the pavement

The average values on the vertical plastic displacements of

the pavement are shown in Figure 10. The Type A interaction
has a higher vertical displacement than that of the predefined
contact pressure (Type B). However, when the depth of the
pavement increases from the base to the subgrade, Type A and
Type B interactions have similar pavement vertical
displacements. Therefore, the HMA is influenced by the tire
loading.

( b) Vertical displacement
(Cross-section view of lateral direction)

Figure 9 Plastic deformation of pavement from Type B

interaction

DISCUSSION

Figure 9 shows average internal stresses of the pavement

in the z-direction for Type A and Type B interactions. The Type
A interaction has a higher average von Mises stress of
pavement than that of the Type B interaction due to the higher
contact pressure of the whole truck tire with the nonlinear
material model that was applied to the pavement. The
maximum von Mises stresses of the pavement between the two
interactions are on the HMA region.

Figure 11 Internal vertical displacement

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 CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we generated contact pressure from a truck
tire with a hyperelastic nonlinear material model. The generated
contact pressure was used to investigate the stress of three-
layered pavement. We also compared the results with those
from predefined contact pressure, which is widely used among
pavement engineers. The major findings of the study are as
follows:
• The predefined contact pressure model underestimates
stresses and strains of the pavement, which may mislead
pavement engineers and produce invalid internal stress
estimations.
• Contact pressure from a hyperelastic truck tire model
(Type A) shows a higher contact pressure on the elasto-
viscoplastic pavement than that of the predefined contact
pressure (Type B), resulting in higher internal stresses
and strains.
[6] Mohsenimanesh A.,Ward S.M., and Gilchrist M.D.
“Stress analysis of a multi-laminated tractor tyre using
non-linear 3D finite element analysis”, Materials and
Design Vol.30, pp.1124-1132,2009
[7] Gent, A.N, and Walter, J.D. 1985, The Pneumatic tire,
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
Washington DC.
[8] Joseph Ponniah, “Use of New Technology Single Wide-
Base Tires: Impact on Pavement”, Technical Report,
November 14, 2003
[9] Joon Hwang, Suk Namgung, “A study on the Finite
Element Analysis of Tire under Rolling and Loading
Conditions”. KSPE, Vol.12 No 3, March 1995
[10] Kim, K. W., Kim, D. M., 2011, “Contact Pressure of Non-
Pneumatic Tire with Auxetic Spokes”, Journal of Korean
Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences, vol. 39, no. 8,
pp. 719-724.
[11] Hua J., White and T., “A Study of Nonlinear Tire Contact
Pressure Effects on HMA Rutting”, The International
Journal of Geomechanics, Vol.2, no 3, pp.353–376,2002

The stress mismatch is high for the HMA layer, which may
encourage pavement engineers to re-evaluate their HMA
designs. We will extend the interaction study to the shear stress
analysis in the near future in order to characterize the damage
which occurs when a tire is rolling. This may be of great
interest to pavement engineers.

REFERENCES

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