Tire Tread Offset Protrusions for Shear Force Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing tire treads lack optimal designs for improving stiffness, handling, wear, and wet traction, as current features such as voids, channels, grooves, slits, and sipes do not effectively manage shear forces and water evacuation under varying loads and conditions.
Innovation Solution
The tire tread design incorporates circumferential grooves and ribs with offset protrusions on sipes, axial slits with lead and rear projections, and narrow channels with offset ridges, which interact to manage shear forces and water evacuation, enhancing tread stiffness and traction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If traditional tire treads use voids, channels, grooves, slits, and sipes with conventional designs, then manufacturing is simpler, but tread stiffness, handling, and wet traction performance are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The tread features are segmented into multiple functional components: circumferential grooves for water evacuation, axial slits for flexibility, and sipes with offset protrusions for enhanced traction. Each segment performs a specific function, allowing the overall tread design to achieve superior stiffness and handling without excessive complexity in any single feature
Solution Approach 2:
The sipes incorporate offset protrusions at specific locations rather than uniform features throughout. The first protrusion on the first sipe wall and second protrusion on the second sipe wall are positioned asymmetrically to create localized stress distribution patterns that enhance wet traction and handling in critical contact zones while maintaining simpler geometry elsewhere
2Reliability
If conventional sipes are used without offset protrusions, then manufacturing is easier, but wet traction and shear force management are inadequate
Solution Approach 1:
The sipes feature asymmetric offset protrusions where the first protrusion and second protrusion are positioned at different locations along the sipe length. This asymmetric configuration creates directional shear resistance that significantly improves wet traction and handling reliability. The asymmetric design, while adding some mold complexity, delivers substantial performance gains in unreliable conventional sipe designs
3Stability of the object's composition
If circumferential grooves and ribs are used without offset protrusions, then the tread structure is simpler, but handling and stiffness under load are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The offset protrusions are pre-positioned on the sipe walls during manufacturing to create predetermined stress distribution patterns. When the tire encounters wet surfaces or lateral forces, these pre-positioned protrusions immediately engage to provide enhanced traction and handling stability, eliminating the need for complex real-time adjustments or overly complicated tread structures
Data Source
AI summary
A shear-controlled tire tread includes a plurality of narrow channels disposed generally perpendicular to a rolling direction. Each narrow channel includes a heel side, a toe side, and a valley connecting the heel side and the toe side, and a first plurality of ridges disposed on a heel side and a second plurality of ridges disposed on a toe side. The first plurality of ridges disposed on a heel side and the second plurality of ridges disposed on a toe side are offset and form interacting friction surfaces when a heel side of collapses toward a toe side or a toe side collapses toward a heel side.