thermoRIDE is a physical-analytical tire thermal model, currently employed by vehicle and tire manufacturing companies and in motorsport, developed with the aim to:
- predict local tire thermal distribution in order to analyze its effect on vehicle performance;
- simulate tire thermal behaviour in real-time environments receiving in input vehicle data;
- enhance tire thermal characteristics linked to tire thermodynamic phenomena
- understand and optimize tire behaviour with consequential setting of proper vehicle setup
The model is able to provide real-time tire temperature distribution, with particular reference to the deep layers usually not reached by measurement instruments, accounting for the dissipative phenomena induced by cyclic deformations and for the effects due to thermal exchanges with external environment.
Moreover, thermoRIDE is preliminarily characterized by means of a specific “LAB” version, able to identify thermal (density, conductivity and specific heat) and structural characteristics (SEL characterization and contact patch area measurement at different values of vertical load, inflation pressure and camber angle) with proprietary totally non-destructive methodologies.
Considering the tire as a thermodynamic system, the heat transfer mechanisms have been physically modelled, accounting for:
- friction power and SEL heating sources
- external convection, road conduction and inflation chamber turbulences
- variations in footprints shape and extension due to loads, camber and inflation pressure
- sidewalls, rim and brake disks interactions
- inner air pressure variations, evolving thanks to a specific sub-model
- tread thickness progressive reduction due to wear (predicted by weaRIDE)
- tailor-made effects due to specific vehicle setup (exhaust blown diffusers, DAS, aero fins, …)
Depending on the complexity and on the geometry, the tire structure is discretized, guaranteeing hard real-time performance, with up to 6 radial layers (from external tread to inner liner) and 16 lateral ribs (in our motorcycle thermoRIDE version), with peculiar physical characteristics. The layers reproduce the tire composite matrix structure, comprising tread external surface, tread core, tread interface with belt, carcass inner liner and inner air, allowing to better understand the thermodynamics of the whole tire in terms of grip and stiffness variations and in the definition of the optimal thermal range. The developed thermodynamic tire model is based on the resolution of the diffusion equation of Fourier applied to a three-dimensional domain, whose formulations have been specifically coded for an optimized computation.
With the aim to let thermoRIDE users being able to autonomously parameterize and manage the tire digitalization, a specifically developed tool, called RIDEtool, is provided to the customers.
Tire Technology of the Year, together with adheRIDE, at Hannover Tire Technology Expo in 2018
