Heavy Duty Tire Tread Groove Segmentation for Wet Grip and Noise
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Solution Overview
Problem
Heavy duty pneumatic tires face challenges in achieving better performance regarding wet grip, traveling noise, and fuel consumption due to trade-offs between land ratio, groove volume, and lateral groove width, which affect rigidity and noise generation.
Innovation Solution
The tire design incorporates a tread portion with specific configurations, including circumferentially extending main grooves, lateral grooves, and inner middle ribs, with optimized groove depths, widths, and sipe arrangements to balance land ratio, groove volume, and rigidity, reducing noise and improving wet grip and fuel efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the land ratio of the tread portion is increased to improve rigidity and reduce fuel consumption, then the groove volume becomes excessively low resulting in poor wet grip performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating different groove depths in different regions of the tread. The center portion has deeper grooves (first groove depth) for water evacuation and wet grip, while the shoulder portion has shallower grooves (second groove depth) to maintain land ratio and rigidity. This localized differentiation allows each region to optimize for its specific function.
Solution Approach 2:
The tread portion is segmented into multiple regions with different groove characteristics. The groove pattern is divided into a center portion with deeper grooves and shoulder portions with shallower grooves. This segmentation allows the tire to simultaneously achieve adequate groove volume for wet grip in the center while maintaining high land ratio for rigidity in the shoulders.
2Reliability
If the number of pitch elements on the tread portion is increased to improve wet performance, then the rigidity of the tread portion decreases resulting in high fuel consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by concentrating a higher density of pitch elements in the center portion of the tread where wet grip is most critical, while reducing the number of pitch elements in the shoulder portions. This allows the tire to achieve good wet performance through increased lateral groove edge elements in the center without sacrificing overall tread rigidity.
3Reliability
If the groove width of each lateral groove is increased to improve wet performance, then large air pumping noise is generated during traveling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by having different groove widths in different regions. The center portion lateral grooves have a first width optimized for water evacuation and wet grip, while the shoulder portion lateral grooves have a second width that is narrower to reduce air pumping noise. This localized differentiation allows the tire to achieve good wet performance without excessive noise generation.
Data Source
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AI summary
A heavy duty pneumatic tire includes a tread portion provided with at least three circumferential main grooves, and a plurality of lateral grooves extending between adjacent main grooves or between one main groove and a tread edge, to form at least one block row comprising a plurality of blocks. The block row comprises a plurality of pitch elements each of which consists of circumferentially adjacent one lateral groove and one block. The tread portion has a land ratio in a range of from 70% to 80%. The block row comprises a number of pitch elements in a range of from 40 to 50, and each lateral groove has a groove width in a range of from 5% to 15% in relation to a circumferential length of the block in each pitch element.