Visualization of Strain Distribution in Tire Tread Block Using Intermittent Digital Camera System

There is increasing demand for quiet tires due to the EU’s tire noise regulation ECE-R117. Hence, it is the subject of extensive research. Particular attention has been paid to the tread, the part of the tire surface that is in direct contact with the road surface. To achieve quiet tires, the design of the tread is important. Therefore, we propose a measurement system that can obtain an image with high sampling frequency and high pixels in a pseudo manner to visualize the strain distribution in the tire tread block. The system is implemented by manipulating a strobe and a high-pixel commercial digital single-lens camera at high speed, making it possible to capture the image of the deformation process of the tread resulting from the penetration into the ground plane and detachment from it on high speed. We obtained the pseudo-continuous images by varying the imaging timing for each rotation cycle. By creating marker points in the tread and tracking them, it was possible to calculate the plane strain when the tire penetrated the ground plane.