FE modelling of a motorcycle tyre for full- scale crash simulations

In finite-element (FE) simulations of motorcycle crashes, the tyre behaviour is of utmost importance since the front tyre is often the first component involved in the impact. For this reason, a typical approach used in car crashes analysis is not appropriated. In this paper, the state-of-the-art tyre FE models for crash/impact analysis will be presented and discussed. Two alternative tyre modelling approaches for full-scale virtual crash tests of motorcycles will be proposed and tested. A Design Of Experiment (DOE) analysis is performed to identify the main parameters that influence the model behaviour. The results are used to tune the models, based on experimental data. Finally, the models are compared and the one that results in the best compromise in terms of fidelity and computational efficiency is assessed in an additional set of configurations.