Tire performance evaluation for severe snow traction

Snow traction is an important tire performance parameter for product applications in markets where snow is present for several months during the year. It is very difficult to perform multiple tests because proving grounds and consistent test conditions are available only for limited periods of time and due to prototyping and test expense. This paper deals with the simulation aspects of the snow traction test using Abaqus. The first part of this paper describes the chosen test method and offers a review of the available simulation technology. A modeling methodology for realistic snow interaction is examined using small-scale simulations, in order to evaluate its applicability to snow traction simulations. Next, simulations of snow traction are developed for a tire rolling over a snow surface. The tire models employ fine-resolution tread patterns so that a better approximation is obtained to the real-world event of tire/snow interaction. Physical phenomena such as snow shear, digging and friction are taken into account by an adaptive-explicit FEA. The proposed analytical procedure is validated through comparison with test data.