ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Tires are an essential part of the vehicle and therefore, the failure prediction of rubber materials due to crack initiation and propagation is of large importance for applications. A steady state rolling tire can be analysed with an Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) framework, which largely improves the computation efficiency compared to transient analysis. In terms of rubber properties, nonlinearities are involved due to friction, viscous effects and others. Therefore, in this contribution, the Arruda-Boyce model is considered for rubber modelling and a nonlinear viscous evolution law can be used for the further work. Regarding fracture, a phase-field method is proposed for crack approximation, which overcomes the limitation of numerically tracking the displacement singularity. The phase of fracture or unfracture can be indicated by a continuous scalar valued phase-field quantity. The driving force for crack propagation is derived from the elastic energy density function. Hence, the elastic energy from both the equilibrium and the non-equilibrium response is necessary to be considered for crack evolution. Moreover, the elastic energy degradation due to fracture is specifically identified, since cracks are sensitive to tensile loading. The volumetric energy is considered to contribute to fracture only if the element is undergoing tension. Representative examples are shown and corresponding discussions are presented. This evaluation ends with remarks and possible further research areas.
