Experiment in COMSOL Multiphysics and Finite ELement Modelling

By: Jakub Klust

Model

It comprises a construction of a simplified tyre geometry and a road surface corresponding to real conditions, assignment of materials, mashing procedure and application of physics (Illustrations 1. - 2.).

Geometry

Shaping of geometry starts from an initial tire profile created in a CAD system serving like an input to the simulated tire geometry and the real 3D scanned road surface data set. The models are initially simulated and analyzed in 2D and consequently in 3d space.

Conclusion

COMSOL has been chosen due to multiphysics environment and direct access to equations. It has a wide range of physical modules including the contact model. The contact zone turned out to be challenging subject due to the road complexity and solution time for a dense mesh. This has initiated also a direction of considerations to involve Abaqus (Ref. [3]) due to stronger capabilities regarding contact models and faster solution times, which is also influenced by computations running on GPUs.