Aircraft Tyre Tread Wear Resistance via Local Quality
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft tires experience irregular wear patterns, particularly differential wear between the middle and lateral parts of the tread, leading to premature tire removal and economic disadvantages, due to varying stress conditions during takeoff, taxiing, and landing phases.
Innovation Solution
The aircraft tire design incorporates a tread with a middle part and lateral parts made of distinct rubber compositions, where the middle part contains a diene elastomer terpolymer, a reinforcing filler, and a crosslinking system optimized for enhanced wear resistance during landing, while maintaining taxi wear resistance by using a highly unsaturated diene elastomer in the lateral parts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the tread is made with a single rubber composition, then the manufacturing process is simple, but the wear is non-uniform with the middle part wearing faster than lateral parts
Solution Approach 1:
The tread is divided into three distinct zones (left lateral part, middle part, right lateral part) with different rubber compositions optimized for their specific functional requirements. The middle part uses a composition with higher carbon black content (60-80 phr) for enhanced wear resistance during landing, while lateral parts use compositions with different elastomer ratios for optimized taxi wear resistance, allowing each region to perform optimally under its specific stress conditions
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs composite rubber materials in each tread zone, combining different elastomers (natural rubber, synthetic polyisoprene, polybutadiene) with various fillers (carbon black, silica) and vulcanizing agents in specific ratios. Each zone's composite formulation is tailored to address the specific wear mechanisms encountered in that region, creating a multi-composite structure that optimizes overall tread performance
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
This design significantly increases the wear resistance of the middle part during landings without degrading taxi wear resistance, resulting in a longer tire lifespan and more uniform tread wear, thus extending the tire's overall usage cycle and reducing retreading costs.
Implementation Method 1
a middle part (3) having an axial width Le at least equal to 50% and at most equal to 80% of the axial width L of the tread and constituted by a central rubber composition... which first diene elastomer is an ethylene terpolymer of an a-olefin and an unconjugated diene
Implementation Method 2
a first diene elastomer, a reinforcing filler and a crosslinking system
Implementation Method 3
a first diene elastomer, a reinforcing filler and a crosslinking system
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
The present invention relates to an aircraft tyre and, in particular, the tread thereof. The tread (2), of axial width L, comprises: a middle portion (3) having an axial width LC that is at least equal to 50% and at most equal to 80% of the axial width L of the tread, formed by a middle rubber composition; and two side portions (41, 42) positioned axially on each side of the middle portion (3), each side portion having an axial width (LS1, LS2) that is at least equal to 10% and at most equal to 25% of the axial width L of the tread, and each being formed by a side rubber composition. According to the invention, the middle rubber composition comprises at least 50 phr of a first diene elastomer, a reinforcing filler, and a cross-linking system, said first diene elastomer being a terpolymer of ethylene, of an α-olefin, and of a non-conjugated diene.