Heavy-Load Tire Tread Cooling With Narrow Lateral Grooves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Heavy load tires with large lateral groove widths experience poor wear performance due to air infiltration, while reducing groove width improves wear but increases heat storage in the tread portion, leading to inefficient cooling.
Innovation Solution
A heavy load tire design featuring circumferential and lateral grooves, with an inclined portion on the center block and notches on intermediate blocks to enhance air flow and heat radiation, allowing efficient cooling of the tread portion even with a smaller groove width.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If the groove width of the lateral groove is large, then the cooling effect of the tread portion is improved, but the wear performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the cooling function into multiple segments: circumferential grooves for primary cooling, lateral grooves for secondary cooling, and inclined portions on blocks for directing air flow. This segmentation allows each component to contribute to cooling without requiring any single groove to be excessively wide, thereby maintaining wear performance while achieving effective cooling.
Solution Approach 2:
The inclined portions are selectively formed on specific blocks (center blocks and intermediate blocks) rather than uniformly across all blocks. This local quality approach directs air flow to specific high-heat areas of the tread portion, providing targeted cooling where needed most without requiring wide grooves across the entire tread width, thus preserving wear performance in non-critical areas.
2Reliability
If the groove width of the lateral groove is reduced, then the wear performance is improved, but the heat storage in the tread portion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention adds the inclined portions on blocks as a new dimensional element to the groove system. These inclined surfaces create a three-dimensional air flow path that directs cooling air more effectively across the tread portion, compensating for the reduced cooling capacity of narrower grooves and preventing excessive heat storage.
Solution Approach 2:
The inclined portions act as intermediaries between the narrow lateral grooves and the tread portion blocks. They redirect air flow from the grooves onto the block surfaces, ensuring that even with reduced groove widths, the cooling air is effectively delivered to the heat-generating areas, thereby controlling heat storage.
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 design effectively promotes air flow into the tread portion, reducing belt temperature and improving cooling efficiency while maintaining wear performance.
Implementation Method 1
air easily flow into the lateral groove during traveling, and a tread portion is cooled by the air
Data Source
AI summary
A heavy load tire includes: a plurality of circumferential grooves extending along a tire circumferential direction; a plurality of lateral grooves extending along a tire width direction and formed in a direction crossing the circumferential grooves; and a plurality of blocks partitioned by the circumferential grooves and the lateral grooves. On a whole surface of one end portion in the tire circumferential direction of a center block formed in a center area among the plurality of blocks, an inclined portion inclined inward in a tire radial direction toward the end portion is formed.