Thermally Adaptive Tire Underlayer for Winter Grip and Durability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional winter tires face challenges such as reduced durability, increased rolling resistance, and excessive road wear due to softer tread layers, which are not optimally suited for fluctuating weather conditions, especially during seasonal changes, leading to suboptimal performance on both icy and warm surfaces.
Innovation Solution
A pneumatic tire with a thermally adaptive underlayer composed of a polymer system with elastomers exhibiting low miscibility and distinct glass transition temperatures, allowing the tire to adjust its stiffness in response to temperature changes, thereby enhancing grip and durability across varying conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a softer tread layer is used to improve grip on cold surfaces, then winter grip properties are improved, but tread durability decreases and rolling resistance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tyre is divided into functionally distinct segments: a hard tread layer for durability and a soft underlayer for cold-weather grip. This segmentation allows each layer to optimize its properties independently, resolving the contradiction between grip and durability.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the tyre structure have different material properties tailored to their specific functions. The underlayer uses soft rubber compounds specifically in the regions that contact the road during winter conditions, while the tread layer maintains hardness throughout for durability.
2Reliability
If a softer tread layer is used to improve grip on cold surfaces, then winter grip properties are improved, but rolling resistance increases leading to higher fuel consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The tyre structure separates the grip function into the underlayer while the tread layer handles rolling resistance through its harder composition, reducing overall energy loss during rotation.
Solution Approach 2:
The underlayer dynamically adapts its properties based on temperature conditions, becoming more compliant in cold weather for grip while maintaining better energy efficiency than a uniformly soft tread layer would provide.
3Reliability
If studded pneumatic tyres are used to increase grip on ice and snow, then winter grip is improved, but road wear increases rapidly
Solution Approach 1:
The stud penetration function is extracted from the tread layer and relocated to the underlayer. This allows studs to penetrate ice and snow for grip while the harder tread layer protects the road surface, reducing road wear.
Solution Approach 2:
The underlayer contains studs specifically in regions where ice and snow penetration is needed, while the tread layer maintains a harder composition that minimizes road wear during normal driving conditions.
4Adaptability or versatility
If a uniformly soft tyre composition is used to maintain grip during seasonal transitions, then adaptability to cold conditions is improved, but durability and energy efficiency deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The tyre is segmented into a durable tread layer and an adaptive underlayer, allowing the underlayer to provide cold-weather grip while the tread layer maintains durability across all conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The underlayer dynamically adjusts its mechanical properties in response to temperature changes, becoming softer in cold conditions for grip while the tread layer maintains consistent durability characteristics.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The thermally adaptive underlayer improves handling and winter grip by adjusting the dynamic stiffness in response to temperature, reducing energy dissipation and extending tire life while minimizing road wear.
Implementation Method 1
the polymer system, the glass transition temperatures of the elastomers are sufficiently far apart from each other. Thereby a pneumatic tyre comprising self-adjustable performance characteristics is obtainable, wherein the dynamic stiffness E* of the thermally adaptive underlayer is highly dependent of the temperature experienced by said layer
Implementation Method 2
Hysteresis is a measure of the amount of energy lost per cycle during deformation of an elastomer
Data Source
AI summary
A pneumatic tyre contains a structure wherein a thermally adaptive underlayer is positioned beneath a tread layer. The thermally adaptive underlayer is based on a polymer system selected to contain elastomers with distinct glass transition temperatures sufficiently far apart and which exhibit low miscibility towards each other. Due to the tyre construction and the thermally adaptive underlayer, while driving a vehicle, performance characteristics of the pneumatic tyre adapt to the driving conditions on the road based on the temperature experienced by the thermally adaptive underlayer. This may be of particularly relevant during colder seasons, such as for a winter tyre, wherein the thermally adaptive underlayer may be used for an improved tread layer and for a studded pneumatic tyre, wherein the composition and thickness of the thermally adaptive underlayer may be used to control the dynamic impact of the stud on a driving surface, when the tyre is in motion.