Calculation of Sidewall Lateral Stiffness of a Radial Tire Using Material Properties of Rubber Compounds

This paper has considered the calculation of lateral stiffness of radial tire's sidewall, which consists of cord stiffness and rubber sheet stiffness, by using the material constants of rubber compounds of tire. We have suggested and illustrated how to calculate the rubber sheet lateral stiffuess, by considering the following aspects. First, the rubber sheet consists of various kinds of rubber compounds with different thickness along the sidewall in the radial direction. Secondly, equivalent Young's modulus of the rubber sheet can be calculated by using available experimental data of rubber compounds. The present method enables us to divide the calculation domain as many as we want, which can reduce numerical error in the calculation of geometrical and mechanical properties. We have illustrated the calculation by using the data of the radial tire for passenger car of P205/60R 15.