Fatigue Life Prediction of Radial Tire Bead Using a Maximum Strain Energy Density Range Method

The damage that occurs around the tire bead region is one of the critical failure forms of a tire. Generally, the prediction of tire durability is carried out by the experimental method. However, it takes a lot of money and time to conduct experiments. Therefore, to determine the fatigue life of radial tire bead, a reasonable prediction method is proposed in this paper. Fatigue testing of bead rubber compounds to determine the ΔSED-number of the cycle (Nf) was applied. The maximum strain energy density range (ΔSEDmax) of several bead compounds was obtained by steady-state rolling analysis with a finite element method. This quantity is then inserted into a fatigue life equation to estimate the fatigue life. The experimental results of the 175/75R14 tire were compared with the estimated value, which showed a good correlation. It is concluded that the method can be effectively applied to the fatigue life prediction of the tire bead.