Numerical investigation of snow traction characteristics of 3-D patterned tire

Traction and braking performances of automobile tire on the snow road are quite distinct from those on the dry or wet road, because of the complicated snow deformation caused by the complex tread blocks. In fact, the mathematical formulation of the snow deformation is extremely difficult, because not only it depends on the loading condition but its material properties are significantly dependent on the icing state (i.e. the snow density). The purpose of the current study is to introduce a numerical simulation of the snow–tire interaction by making use of Lagrangian finite element method and Eulerian finite volume method. The interaction between the tire tread blocks and the snow deformation is implemented by the explicit Euler–Lagrangian coupling scheme. The multi-surface yield model is adopted to describe both the softening and yielding of snow, and the associated material properties are chosen based upon the existing data in literature and the preliminary verification simulation. The numerical experiments are carried out by MSC/Dytran to investigate the parametric characteristics of the snow traction to the snow hardness, the block depth and the tread pattern.

► The snow–tire interaction is simulated by considering the detailed tread blocks of tire.
► The reliability of the numerical results is verified by comparing with experiment.
► The effects of the snow hardness, block depth and tread pattern are investigated.