Static Analysis of a Tire Sidewall Developed From Tailored Organomodified Kaolin/Natural Rubber Vulcanizates

Abstract

This paper is on the prediction of stress limits and strain distributions of an automobile tire sidewall developed from Natural Rubber (NR)/Tea Seed Oil (TSO) modified kaolin composites. The stress-strain data report of NR/TSO modified kaolin at filler loading of 10phr was used to establish parameters characterizing the elastic behavior of the rubber vulcanizates. The tire model investigated was developed from MATLAB PDE Toolbox. The study was developed on maximum inflation pressure of 0.220632 MPa. The 2D Finite Element (FE) model computations for static loading of the tire sidewall gave a reasonable prediction of the stress limits and strain distributions, as the shear stresses obtained were within the range of −10 MPa to 10 MPa. The strain energy distributions were found to be within the range of −1500 J·m⁻³ to 1500 J·m⁻³. The stress limits for the first principal stress with respect to their magnitudes and orientations was obtained as 10 MPa for tensile stress and −20 MPa for compressive stress respectively while the stress limits for the second principal stress was obtained as 20 MPa for tensile stress and −10 MPa for compressive stress. The plane stress analysis with MATLAB PDE Toolbox gave stress limits distribution in terms of von-Mises stresses in the range 5 MPa - 25 MPa. The results indicate that NR/TSO modified kaolin composites can be employed in automobile tire sidewall applications.

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