Les détériorations d'un pneu occasionnées par le roulement sur des chaussées accidentées est un problème crucial pour l'industrie des pneumatiques. Les couches de composite à matrice élastomère renforcée par des câbles d'acier architecturés sous forme de nappe de ceinturage, ont pour objet de protéger le pneu d'éventuelles pénétrations par des projectiles extérieurs. Cependant le comportement de ces nappes composites reste mal connu surtout quand il s'agit de mécanismes d'endommagement par chocs. Pour améliorer cette connaissance, cette thèse s'est proposée d'étudier le comportement mécanique des constituants ainsi que du composite lorsque ces matériaux sont soumis à des tractions grandes vitesses et des essais d'impact. Les mécanismes d'endommagements ont été analysés. Les analyses expérimentales et les simulations numériques ont permis de mieux comprendre le comportement dynamique et les mécanismes d'endommagement sous des sollicitations rapides, d'impact et d'indentation. Issu de ces essais, un critère capable de prévoir la perforation de la nappe de ceinturage a été proposé. Sa validation a été faite sur des essais effectués sur des composites élastomères ceinturés de ces nappes. / Road hazard is a critical problem in tire application. Steel cord-rubber composite such as steel belt is used to reinforce the tire stiffness in architecture of the radial tire. The main function is used to protect penetrations due to foreign objects. In fact, the knowledge of this material is not well-established yet in particular damage mechanisms subjected to impact load. The principal objective of this dissertation is to study high strain rate behaviors, impact behaviors as well as damage mechanisms of the steel cord-rubber composite, allowing us to develop a perforation criterion. The experimental analysis and numerical simulations allow us to thoroughly understand the dynamic behaviors and damage mechanisms for instance high stain rate tensile characterization, drop-weight impact and indentation characterizations, damage observation etc... In order to develop a criterion capable of predicting the perforation of the steel cord-rubber composite, the drop-weight impact tests and indentation tests have been conducted. Finally, we propose the perforation criterion based on analytical approach and its validation for the steel cord-rubber composite.

In 1967, Broward County, Florida resource managers initiated a project to construct an artificial reef to enhance recreational fishing using waste vehicle tires. An estimated two million unballasted tires were bundles and deployed in bundles approximately 1.8km offshore in 21m of water on sandy substrate separating the middle and outer reef tracts, running parallel to the coast. Over time, bindings on the tire bundles failed and the tires became mobile with normal currents and high energy storms. The tires have apparently moved extensively, travelling kilometers from their original location to beaches and deeper waters offshore. It has also been reported that loose tires have physically damaged benthic reef fauna on the natural reef. Due to this damage, a large-scale removal plan of the tires has been initiated. To assess damage and evaluate effectiveness of tire removal, an examination of existing biota was accomplished. Live corals were absent on the middle reef edge, buried by tires but were present on the tires themselves. When compared to the impacted middle reef edge (tires present), adjacent natural reef control sites (tires absent) exhibited significantly lower fish abundance and species richness. Removal of the tires will directly reduce the abundance of fishes and affect the corals in the area. Future studies will evaluate the loss of these resources relative to the gain in reduced impact to the natural reef.

Cette thèse a pour objet de développer une nouvelle méthodologie pour valoriser les poudrettes de pneus usagés (PPU). Celles-ci résultent du broyage de la partie caoutchoutique des pneus usagés qui conserve l’excellente élasticité. L’idée est de profiter de leur élasticité pour renforcer la résistance au choc des polymères fragiles tels que le polystyrène (PS) en y incorporant les PPU. Cependant, la réalisation de cette idée a besoin de relever deux défis majeurs : (1) les PPU commerciales ont typiquement des diamètres de l’ordre de plusieurs centaines de micromètres. Or elles doivent être deux ordres de grandeur plus petits en taille pour pouvoir améliorer la résistance au choc des polymères fragiles. (2) L’adhésion interfaciale entre les polymères et les PPU est mauvaise et constitue donc des défauts mécaniques du matériau. Ces deux défis sont liés à la nature même des PPU qui sont intrinsèquement des réseaux réticulés chimiquement. Cette thèse choisit le PS pour représenter les polymères fragiles. La méthodologie visant à renforcer sa résistance au choc est de polymériser le styrène par voie radicalaire au sein des PPU. Cette polymérisation forme à la fois des chaines en PS libres et des greffons en PS liés chimiquement aux mailles du réseau des PPU. Les inclusions des chaines en PS libres facilitent la dispersion des PPU en taille plus petite lorsqu’une action mécanique leur est appliquée lors de l’extrusion par exemple. La formation des greffons en PS sur les mailles du réseau des PPU renforce l’adhésion interfaciale entre le PS et les PPU. Cette thèse a développé un modèle complet permettant de décrire la cinétique de polymérisation radicalaire du PS libre et celle des greffons en PS liés aux mailles du réseau des PPU. Elle l’a validé par un plan d’expériences judicieux / This thesis aims to develop a novel approach to value ground tire rubber (GTR). The latter results from grounding of the rubber part of used tires which retains excellent elasticity. The idea is to take the advantage of its elasticity to toughen brittle polymers such as polystyrene (PS) upon incorporating GTR into them. However, two challenges have to be overcome to realize this idea. (1) Commercial GTR is typically in the form of particles of a few hundreds of micrometers in diameter. However, it has to be at least one to two orders of magnitude smaller when incorporated in a brittle polymer so as to be able to improve its impact resistance. (2) The interfacial adhesion between the polymer and GTR is weak. These two challenges are related to the intrinsic nature of the GTR which is chemically cross-linked. This thesis chooses PS to represent brittle polymers. The approach aiming at toughening it is to polymerize styrene in a free radical manner inside cross-linked GTR particles. This leads to the formation of both free PS and PS that is grafted onto the GTR, denoted as grafted PS. The inclusions of the free PS inside the GTR particles help break them down by mechanical shear in a screw extruder for example and the formation of grafted PS improves the interfacial adhesion between the PS and the GTR. This thesis has developed a comprehensive kinetic model for the polymerization of free PS and that of grafted PS. This model is validated by experimental designs

M. Tech (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences) Vaal University of Technology. / The presence of tires in open fields, households and landfills is a great threat to the wellbeing of the ecosystem around them. Tire creates an ideal breeding ground for disease carrying vermins and their possible ignition threatens the surrounding air quality due to the harmful gases produced during combustion. Pyrolysis of tires produces four valuable products namely; char, steel, tire pyrolytic oil (TPO) and noncondensable gases. TPO has been reported to have similar properties to commercial diesel fuel. The biggest challenge faced by TPO to be used directly in combustion engines is the available sulfur content of about 1.0% wt. Considering the stringent regulations globally for allowable sulfur content in liquid fuels, TPO therefore, requires deep desulfurization before commercialization. In this study, different desulfurization techniques were applied to reduce the sulfur content in TPO. A novel study on combination of adsorptive and air-assisted oxidative desulfurization (AAOD) was developed for desulfurization of TPO. Different carbon materials were employed as catalyst and/or adsorbent for the AAOD system. The effect of operating conditions; catalyst/adsorbent dosage, H2O2/HCOOH ratio, reaction time, temperature and air flowrate were studied. Oxidation equilibrium was reached at 80 °C for both commercial activated carbon (CAC) and activated tire char (ATC) at a reaction time of 50 min. With a total oil recovery of more than 90% and the initial sulfur content of 7767.7 ppmw, the presence of air at a flow rate of 60 l/hr increased oxidation from 59.2% to 64.2% and 47.4% to 53% for CAC and ATC, respectively. The use π-complexation sorbent was also applied to study the selectivity of such sorbents to organosulfur compounds (OSC) found in liquid fuels. The π-complexationbased adsorbent was obtained by ion exchanging Y-zeolite with Cu+ cation using liquid phase ion exchange (LPIE). Batch adsorption experiments were carried out in borosilicate beakers filled with modified Cu(I)-Y zeolite for both TPO and synthesized model fuels. For model fuels (MF), the selectivity for adsorption of sulfur compounds followed the order dibenzothiophene (DBT)> benzothiophene (BT)> Thiophene.

This document focuses on the influence of vehicle geometry setting on the tire tread wear. A series of tests using trucks with varied geometry settings has been carried out. The data of tire tread wear was collected during a five month period. An analysis was then conducted and a proposition of adjusting the methodology for further usage has been made.

<div>The development work of a race car revolves around numerous goals such as drag reduction,</div><div>maximizing downforce and side force, and maintaining balance. Commonly, these goals</div><div>are to be met at the same time thus increasing the level of difficulty to achieve them. The</div><div>methods for data acquisitions available to a race team during the season is mostly limited to</div><div>wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics, both of which are being heavily regulated</div><div>by sanctioning bodies. While these methods enable data collection on a regular basis</div><div>with repeat-ability they are still only a simulation, and as such they come with some margin</div><div>of error due to a number of factors. A significant factor for correlation error is the effect of</div><div>tires on the flow field around the vehicle. This error is a product of a number of deficiencies</div><div>in the simulations such as inability to capture loaded radius, contact patch deformation in</div><div>Y direction, sidewall deformation and overall shifts in tire dimensions. These deficiencies</div><div>are evident in most WT testing yet can be captured in CFD. It is unknown just how much</div><div>they do affect the aerodynamics performance of the car. That aside, it is very difficult to</div><div>correlate those findings as most correlation work is done at WT which has been said to be</div><div>insufficient with regards to tire effect modeling. Some work had been published on the effect</div><div>of tire deformation on race car aerodynamics, showing a large contribution to performance</div><div>as the wake from the front tires moves downstream to interact with body components. Yet</div><div>the work done so far focuses mostly on open wheel race cars where the tire and wheel assembly</div><div>is completely exposed in all directions, suggesting a large effect on aerodynamics.</div><div>This study bridges the gap between understanding the effects of tire deformation on race car</div><div>aerodynamics on open wheel race cars and closed wheel race cars. The vehicle in question</div><div>is a hybrid of the two, exhibiting flow features that are common to closed wheel race cars</div><div>due to each tire being fully enclosed from front and top. At the same time the vehicle is</div><div>presenting the downstream wake effect similar to the one in open wheel race cars as the</div><div>rear of the wheelhouse is open. This is done by introducing a deformable tire model using</div><div>FEA commercial code. A methodology for quick and accurate model generation is presented</div><div>to properly represent true tire dimensions, contact patch size and shape, and deformed dimension,</div><div>all while maintaining design flexibility as the model allows for different inflation</div><div>pressures to be simulated. A file system is offered to produce CFD watertight STL files that</div><div>can easily be imported to a CFD analysis, while the analysis itself presents the forces and</div><div>flow structures effected by incorporating tire deformation to the model. An inflation pressure</div><div>sweep is added to the study in order to evaluate the influence of tire stiffness on deformation</div><div>and how this results in aerodynamic gain or loss. A comparison between wind tunnel</div><div>correlation domain to a curved domain is done to describe the sensitivity each domain has</div><div>with regards to tire deformation, as each of them provides a different approach to simulating</div><div>a cornering condition. The Study suggests introducing tire deformation has a substantial</div><div>effect on the flow field increasing both drag and downforce.In addition, flow patterns are</div><div>revealed that can be capitalized by designing for specific cornering condition tire geometry.</div><div>A deformed tire model offers more stable results under curved and yawed flow. Moreover,</div><div>the curved domain presents a completely different side force value for both deformed and</div><div>rigid tires with some downforce distribution sensitivity due to inflation pressure.</div>

This work solves the effect of incorrect tire inflation on the warming of their parts while driving a personal car. A series of tests were carried out for different tire pressure values and during the tests the temperature data of tires was collected using a thermocamera. An analysis of these data was also carried out and a proposal for modification of the methodology for further measurements was made.

The thesis deals with the possibilities of identifying the relevant tire traces at the place of a traffic accident based on their physical characteristics. Braking traces on the road are one of the most important objective elements for accident analysis, their easy and accurate detection is very important for accurate accident assessment. With the increasing technical equipment of vehicles, especially with the introduction of newer generations of braking assistance systems, traces left by the tires become almost invisible to the human eye. It is therefore highly desirable that their detection should be not only as accurate as possible but also as easy and fast as possible, not only for forensic experts, but especially for members of the traffic police departments. In line with the development and introduction of new safety and assistance systems for vehicles should also be the development of means and methods of providing the basis for technical analysis of traffic accidents. Reality shows that the procedures, even if still functional, are practically identical for several decades, are dependent on the subjective capabilities of the documenting person. An essential element of the work, compared to the previously described measurement procedures, is the use of modern methods and devices at the highest known level of knowledge. The aim is to find and verify a simple, accurate, subjectively least influenced detecting method for tire traces on the road. A series of measurements confirmed the possibility of using the thermal camera at the technical level usually available at the place of the accident, under limited atmospheric and time conditions. In addition, laser-induced plasma spectroscopy and rLIBS were used. This method of detecting spotless tire treads can be marked as a minimally feasible documentary and at the same time as fast enough, based on the measurements made and the intended removal of defects of the instrument in the development phase of the prototype.

Diploma thesis is devoted to tractor cabin's suspension. First part of the work consists of the overview of used suspension designs and their various modifications. Next, law requirements for roll-over protective structure are described. Subsequently, the suspension design for small-sized tractor is explored. Law compliance is revised via ROPS procedure simulation using finite element method. In the last part of the work, virtual prototype of agricultural tractor in Multi-body environment is built and it is used for studying the dynamic characteristics of proposed cabin suspension design.

The output of this diploma work (dissertation) will be design of a construction for a tester enabling simulation of riding a vehicle with mounted snow chain in winter season on road without snow. The result of testing will be abrasion of single link of the chain caused interaction with surface of road and strength test of weld link e.g. when is pass gravelly surface.