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Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe)

Center Overview

The Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe) provides research, development, and solutions to tire, vehicle, testing, and materials companies through modeling, analysis, testing, and demonstration of integrated solutions and systems. CenTiRe is dedicated to researching tire and tire/vehicle materials, physics (including modeling), testing, sustainability, and manufacturing.

Universities

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
University of Akron

View Center Website

Center Personnel

Dr. Saied Taheri
Center Director
+1 540 231 8250
staheri@vt.edu

Dr. Jae-Won Choi
Center Co-Director
+1 330 972 8275
jchoi1@uakron.edu

Mr. Greg Bunting
Managing Director
+1 540 231 0461
gfbunting@vt.edu

Research Focus

Materials

Developing new advanced materials or novel use of existing materials, or utilizing new molecular level or constitutive modeling techniques, to enhance the specified performance of the tire while maintaining and perhaps enhancing other performance areas. New materials technology is of high value to the tire, automotive, and materials supplier companies.

Sustainability

Developing technology that will allow better use of natural resources and consumer/production waste streams in the areas of tire materials, manufacturing, and post-life. New materials from sustainable sources, low environmental impact manufacturing, and tire recycling and reuse are of great interest to CenTiRe member companies.

Testing

Developing new equipment, procedures, or techniques for testing in areas such as new materials. Validating constitutive equations, tire-road interactions, and novel testing of tire performance. Providing more accurate, realistic, efficient, and economical testing capabilities is of great interest to our member companies.

Tire physics

Developing new insights and techniques that will allow CenTiRe's industry members to understand and predict tire characteristics. This includes advancements in the mechanics of tire-road interaction modeling, physical and empirical tire modeling, road profile modeling, and developing simulation technology for use with pre- and postproduction tire and tire/vehicle performance assessments.

Awards

2137223

IUCRC Phase III Virginia Tech: Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe)

This award is a Phase III renewal for an existing Industry University Cooperative Research Center - The Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe). CenTiRe is a collaboration between Virginia Tech and the University of Akron. With the advancements made in vehicle as well as road design, the demand on tire performance has increased tremendously. Therefore, the Center’s mission is to push the boundaries of tire science and to better understand the complex interactions between the tire, road surface and the vehicle, and apply this knowledge to impact the competitiveness of the tire industry. To support this mission, the Virginia Tech (VT) site will conduct and disseminate innovative research and solutions in tire and vehicle modeling and simulation, tire-road interaction characterization and modeling (force and moment, friction and wear, noise, and vibration), related test equipment development, and intelligent tire system and the University of Akron (UA) will provide innovative research in tire materials, material models, simulation tools, test equipment, and manufacturing methods. In addition to its research efforts, the Center actively promotes the progress of science by directly supporting the education and training of a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students.

CenTiRe disseminates innovations in tire science and technology by finding solutions for new materials, models, simulation tools, test equipment, and manufacturing methods. VT is globally known for tire and vehicle engineering and Phase III efforts will focus on research to better understand tire performance. This includes: tire and vehicle dynamic modeling; tire-road interaction modeling for friction, wear and noise; road profiling and friction estimation; and materials development for enhanced tire performance. The research team at UA complements those at VT particularly in the materials and sustainability thrust areas. UA teams make use of complex heterogenous dynamics in understanding performance of silica filled rubbers in tire tread compounds, recycling bottle grade plastics into technical grade fibers for tire reinforcements, understanding degradation of road wear particles, developing reliable aging model, and 3D printing process for manufacturing tire tread sensors. These technologies address the roadmap required for unmet and underserved industry needs including all-weather traction, durability, and environmental impact. CenTiRe sites prioritize developing a well-trained workforce by providing rigorous training for undergraduate and graduate students, many who come from diverse and underrepresented groups including women and minorities. Center societal impacts are equally emphasized through K-12 education, REU and outreach.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. Read More >

1650423

Phase II I/UCRC Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe)

The Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe) is a collaboration between NSF, Virginia Tech and the University of Akron with Virginia Tech as the lead site. The Center?s Mission is to improve road transportation safety by understanding the complex interactions between the tire, road surface and the vehicle, and then applying this knowledge to improve tire materials, manufacturing, simulation and testing methods. This mission is broadly supported with complementary expertise from companies in the vehicle, tire, materials, and testing fields. To support this mission, the Virginia Tech site will conduct and disseminate innovative research and solutions in tire and vehicle modeling and simulation tools, tire-road interaction characterization and modeling (force and moment modeling, friction and wear, noise, and vibration), related test equipment development, and intelligent tire system and the University of Akron will provide innovative industrial research in tire materials, material models, simulation tools, test equipment, and manufacturing methods. This recent award enables CenTiRe to move into Phase 2. The Center is proud to promote the progress of science by directly supporting the education and training of a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students.

With the advancements made in vehicle as well as road design, the demand on tire performance has increased tremendously in the past few years. Therefore, the need for fundamental and applied research for the tire industry has increased significantly. The Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe) has the objective to conduct and disseminate innovations in tire science and technology through conducting research and finding solutions for new materials, models, simulation tools, test equipment, and manufacturing methods. Since Virginia Tech (VT) is globally known for tire and vehicle engineering, VT will conduct research to better understand tire performance through model development, simulation and testing. This includes but is not limited to: tire and vehicle dynamic modeling using physics-based, experiment-based and finite element methods; tire-road interaction modeling for friction, wear and noise; intelligent tire development for tire health monitoring; road profiling and friction estimation; and some innovative materials development for enhanced tire performance. The University of Akron is globally known for its polymer science and engineering, and makes its strongest contribution in the field of materials development, modeling, simulation, and testing. Specifically: analyzing rubber-filler interactions, new materials design, tire noise minimization, materials fracture and sustainability testing as well as development of constitutive laws for materials. The developed technologies from these two universities within CenTiRe will aim at improving tire traction properties, fuel economy, environmental impact, as well as functional performances such as handling, ride, noise, and wear. Cars and trucks play a major role in our nation's economy. Therefore, the demand for engineers and scientists who are highly knowledgeable in tire technology will significantly grow in the future. Both Virginia Tech and the University of Akron have been well known as institutions which provide a well-trained workforce for our relevant industries by providing rigorous training for our undergraduate and graduate students as well as seminars and industrial courses for life-long learners in the field. Therefore, CenTiRe, and more specifically Virginia Tech and the University of Akron, have developed a rigorous training process which includes analytical as well as hands-on research plus several graduate level courses which will help the students find positions within the member companies after graduation. Read More >

2137261

IUCRC Phase III University of Akron: Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe)

Member Organizations

IUCRC affiliated member organizations are displayed as submitted by the Center. Non-federal organizations are not selected, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the Center author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.