Deep anistropic shell program for tire analysis

A finite element program was constructed to model the mechanical response of a tire, treated as a deep anisotropic shell, to specified static loads. The program is based on a Sanders Budiansky type shell theory with the effects of transverse shear deformation and bending-extensional coupling included. A displacement formulation is used together with a total Lagrangian description of the deformation. Sixteen-node quadrilateral elements with bicubic shape functions are employed. The Noor basis reduction technique and various type of symmetry considerations serve to improve the computational efficiency.