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A methodology for an efficient failure prediction of automotive steel wheels during fatigue experimental tests is proposed. The strategy joins the CDTire simulative package effectiveness to a specific wheel finite element model in order to deeply monitor the stress distribution among the component to predict damage. The numerical model acts as a Software-in-the-loop and it is calibrated with experimental data. The developed tool, called VirtualWheel, can be applied for the optimisation of design reducing prototyping and experimental test costs in the development phase. In the first section, the failure criterion is selected. In the second one, the conversion of hardware test-rig into virtual model is described in detail by focusing on critical aspects of finite element modelling. In conclusion, failure prediction is compared with experimental test results.

The aim of this paper is to study in deep the peculiar test-rigs and experimental procedures adopted to the fulfilment of the principal requirements of automotive steel wheels, in particular regarding fatigue damaging. In the discussion, the standard requirements, the OEM specifications and the dimensional and geometric tolerances are approached. As result of an increasingly necessity to improve the performance of the components, innovative virtual test benches are presented. Differently from their traditional precursors, virtual test-rigs give an extended view of the physical behaviour of the component as the possibility to monitor stress-strain distribution in deep. In the first section, the state of the art and the specifications are listed. Secondly, the adopted hardware test-rigs as the experimental tests are described in detail. In the third one, proposed virtual test-rig is discussed.

Today's tire models used in MBD full vehicle application scenarios like Ride&Comfort or Durability are parameterized with a variety of ‘spindle load’ measurements: quasi-static (e.g. vertical, lateral and circumferential stiffness), quasi-steady-state (e.g. pure lateral and longitudinal slip) and transient (e.g. cleat run) tests in well defined tire stand-alone test rigs measure the accumulated tire force acting on the wheel center. While some tests are designed to induce local deformations (e.g. vertical stiffness on cleats), no measurement of local reactions (e.g. sidewall displacement or rim strain) are performed in a standardized way - apart from footprint and contour tests. The level of detail in structural FEA tire models renders them unfeasible for most full vehicle applications due to the implied computational effort; however, dedicated tire stand-alone scenarios are well within reach of today's R&D IT infrastructures.