Adaptive Tyre Tread Structure for Wet Grip and Puncture Resistance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional tyres suffer from limited traction, wear, and puncture issues, especially in electric vehicles due to increased torque and weight, necessitating specialized tyres for different conditions and frequent replacement.
Innovation Solution
A tyre with an adaptive tread comprising movable surface sections and a super elastic linking layer with cavities, allowing the tread pattern to change without deformation and enhancing traction, reducing wear, and improving puncture resistance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If grooves of the tread pattern are provided to expel water, then water expulsion capability is improved, but contact area between tyre and ground surface is reduced, leading to reduced traction
Solution Approach 1:
The tread pattern is designed with movable surface sections that can dynamically adjust their configuration. In wet conditions, the surface sections can move apart to form grooves for water expulsion, while in dry conditions they can come together to maximize contact area and traction. This dynamic adaptability resolves the contradiction between water expulsion and traction by allowing the tyre to optimize for each condition separately.
Solution Approach 2:
The continuous tread surface is segmented into multiple independent surface sections that can move relative to each other. This segmentation allows individual sections to adjust their positions to create water channels when needed, while maintaining the ability to form a continuous contact surface when dry, thus resolving the trade-off between water expulsion and traction.
2Adaptability or versatility
If rubber surface is made thin and soft to conform to ground surface, then adaptability is improved, but puncture resistance is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The tread is divided into multiple independent surface sections that can move relative to each other. This segmentation allows the tyre to maintain a thin, compliant surface for ground conformity while the modular structure provides redundancy - if one section is punctured, others remain functional, effectively resolving the contradiction between conformability and puncture resistance.
Solution Approach 2:
The design inherently provides a cushioning effect through the movable surface sections that can deform independently. This allows the thin rubber surface to absorb impacts and resist punctures through distributed deformation rather than concentrated stress, maintaining both conformability and reliability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If surface sections move relative to each other to form adaptive tread pattern, then traction and adaptability are improved, but device complexity is increased
Solution Approach 1:
The tread is segmented into surface sections that are structurally simple but collectively provide complex adaptive functionality. Each section is a straightforward structural element, yet their ability to move relative to each other creates the adaptive tread pattern, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and complexity through modular simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The surface sections are designed to move automatically in response to loading conditions and ground interactions without requiring external control systems. The tread adapts itself through the natural deformation and relative movement of its segmented structure, achieving high adaptability with minimal added complexity.
4Reliability
If protrusions are made long (at least 10% of tyre radius) to reduce puncture risk, then puncture resistance is improved, but tyre weight and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single thick layer of rubber throughout the tyre, the design uses segmented protrusions that provide puncture resistance only where needed at the tread surface. This localized approach to reinforcement reduces overall tyre weight while maintaining puncture resistance, resolving the contradiction between reliability and weight.
Solution Approach 2:
The protrusions concentrate reinforcement material locally at the tread surface where puncture risk is highest, rather than distributing weight uniformly throughout the tyre. This local quality approach provides maximum puncture resistance with minimum weight penalty, resolving the contradiction between reliability and weight.
Data Source
AI summary
A tyre comprising an adaptive tread, the adaptive tread comprising a plurality of surface sections, wherein each surface section can move without deformation relative to the other surface sections to form a tread pattern.