Tread rubber compound effect in winter tires: Benchmarking ATIIM 2.0 with classical models

Tire-terrain interaction is complex and affects the performance of the vehicle; more so when the terrain is ice which affects the handling of the vehicle. Analysis of the contact between the tire and ice, especially in the countries like United States, Canada, etc. is imperative but a trial-and-error approach consisting of the design and manufacture of novel tires for testing and analysis seems a foregone conclusion. Thus, it is important to have accurate methods of simulation of tire performance on ice in order to design better tires without inputting much cost in the manufacturing process.

This study chose to simulate the performance of sixteen tires which were identical in all aspects of design and construction except for the tread rubber compound which varied resulting in two tires having the same tread rubber compound. These simulations were performed using the in-house developed ATIIM, ATIIM 2.0, and modified versions of three simplified classical models namely the model by Hayhoe and Shapley and two models by Peng et al. A qualitative comparison of the performance of the models was performed in order to highlight their advantages and disadvantages.