ABSTRACT
In contrast to the finite element method (FEM), which is widely used in the tire industry nowadays, some alternative methods have been proposed by academic communities over the past decade or so. The meshfree method is one of those new methodologies. Originally intended to remove the burden of creating the mesh that is inherent in FEM, the meshfree method relies on the point data rather than the mesh, which makes it much easier to discretize the geometry. In addition to those modeling issues, it has been found that the meshfree method has several advantages over FEM in handling geometrical nonlinearities, continuities, and so forth. In accordance with those emerging possibilities, the authors have been conducting research on the matter. This article describes the results of the authors' preliminary research on the applicability of the meshfree method to tire analyses, which include the theoretical outline, the strategy of tire modeling, numerical results, comparisons with results of FEM, and conclusions.