Heavy Duty Tire Cooling via Segmented Lug Grooves
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Solution Overview
Problem
Very large, wide base tires for construction vehicles face severe operating conditions due to extreme loading and high-speed off-road use, leading to excessive heat buildup, necessitating a cooler running tire design.
Innovation Solution
The tire design incorporates a non-directional tread pattern with specific angular and staggered shoulder grooves, deep circumferential grooves, and irregularly shaped center lugs to create a cooling path for air around the lugs, maximizing cooling surface area and reducing heat retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If the tire operates under extreme loading and high-speed off-road conditions, then the tire can handle heavy duty applications, but excessive heat build up occurs in the tire
Solution Approach 1:
The tread is segmented into multiple lugs arranged in circumferential rows, with grooves separating them. This segmentation creates channels for air flow to penetrate and cool the tire structure, allowing heat dissipation while maintaining load-bearing capability through the distributed lug configuration
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the tread have different lug configurations optimized for their specific functions. The shoulder lugs provide lateral stability, center lugs provide forward traction, and the varying lug sizes and shapes create localized cooling zones while maintaining overall structural integrity under load
2Device complexity
If the tire uses a conventional tread design, then the structure is simple, but cooling efficiency is insufficient under severe operating conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The tread pattern is divided into multiple circumferential rows of lugs with intervening grooves, creating a segmented structure that facilitates air penetration. This segmentation provides cooling channels without requiring complex additional components, achieving enhanced cooling through clever geometric arrangement
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling mechanism extends from surface-level convection to three-dimensional air penetration through the tread structure. The grooves and lug configurations create pathways for air to flow through the tire's internal structure, adding a depth dimension to the cooling process
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 reduces heat buildup in the tire, enhancing its cooling efficiency and providing improved traction and durability under extreme conditions.
Implementation Method 1
The circumferential grooves 55, 60 and the irregular shape of the center lugs 50 provide cooling paths for air to flow around the center lugs 50 to cool the lugs
Data Source
AI summary
An off the road tire comprising a carcass, a tread located radially outward of the carcass, the tread having a plurality of lugs, the lugs extending radially outward from an inner tread and being located between first and second lateral tread edges, a first row of lugs extending from the tread lateral edge axially inwards toward the centerplane, a second row of lugs extending from the opposite tread lateral edge and axially inwards toward the centerplane and wherein the lugs of the first and second rows are separated by a plurality of shoulder grooves, a third row of lugs located between the first and second row of lugs, wherein all of the lugs in each row are aligned circumferentially, wherein the lugs in the third row have two or more ends formed by grooves.