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Small-scale test rigs for experimental investigations of tire standing wave instability are described. The rigs are used in experiments in which tire rotational speed is gradually increased passed the critical speed at which standing waves appear around the circumference of the tire. The first detailed results from one of the rigs are presented. Images grabbed from live video are processed to extract the spatial structure of the standing waves. Frequency and time domain vibrational data and temperature histories are also collected. The spatial frequencies for the standing wave are computed for four different tire pressures, and the results are shown to be in qualitative agreement with numerical results of previous researchers.

In this paper, a new model's critical speed predictions for five aircraft tires are compared with a shell finite element model's predictions (with and without centrifugal stiffening), a tread band model's predictions and experimental data. The model presented is a nonlinear, shearable and extensible viscoelastic ring on viscoelastic foundation subjected to an internal pretensioning force and the full complement of inertial forces due to its rotation. This model is referred to as the ring model for the remainder of this paper. Critical speed (linear) analysis of the model's non-linear equations of motion yields results which are in good agreement with experimental data. The model is quicker and less memory intensive than the shell finite element model while still maintaining the same degree of accuracy. It is also more accurate than the tread band model since it incorporates the effects of transverse shear deformation and the full complement of inertial forces.