Tire having a model-based description enabling determination of road handling characteristics

Tire for a wheel of a vehicle, comprising:

• selected mixes of rubber and reinforcing materials;
• a carcass, a belting structure, a tread band provided with inserts, shoulders, sidewalls, and beads provided with bead wires and bead fillings;
• said tire being represented by a concentrated-parameter, physical model including a brush model with a road, wherein concentrated parameters of the physical model include structural stiffness Kc consisting of lateral stiffness Kcy, camber torsional stiffness Kcθx and yawing torsional stiffness Kcθz, structural dampings Rc consisting of lateral damping Rcy, camber torsional damping Rcθx and yawing torsional damping Rcθz, residual stiffness Kr consisting of residual lateral stiffness Kry, residual camber torsional stiffness Krθx and residual yawing torsional stiffness Krθz, and residual dampings Rr consisting of residual lateral damping Rry, residual camber torsional damping Rrθx and residual yawing torsional damping Rrθz;
• and
• said tire also being represented by means of a finite-element model comprising first elements with a selected number of nodes, suitable for describing said mixes, and second elements suitable for describing said reinforcing materials, said concentrated parameters being identified by a selected series of dynamic tests on said finite-element model and represented by equations of applied motion applied to said physical model, said tire having construction characteristics substantially equivalent to said concentrated parameters that describe the dynamic behavior of said tire and enable the determination of selected physical quantities suitable for indicating the drift behavior of said tire for evaluation of said tire in relation to its road handling.