A finite element method (FEM) was developed in 1950s as a tool of computational mechanics. In the tire manufacturers, FEM was started applying to a tire analysis in the beginning of 1970s and this was much earlier than the vehicle industry, electric industry, and others. The main reason was that construction and configurations of a tire were so complicated that analytical approach could not solve many problems related with tire mechanics. Since FEM could make the stress/strain behavior visible in a tire, the application area was mainly tire durability in the early stage.
Combining FEM with optimization technique, the tire design procedure has been developed in side wall shape, tire crown shape, tire pattern, and etc. After that the computational mechanics becomes an indispensable tool for tire industry. Furthermore, an insight to improve tire performances is obtained from the optimized solution and the new technologies are created from the insight.
The computational mechanics will be applied in multi-disciplinary area and nano-scale area to create a new technology of the environmental subjects such as rolling resistance (RR), noise and wear.