Pneumatic Tyre Shoulder Drainage Grooves for Wet Grip
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pneumatic vehicle tires face a challenge in balancing water drainage performance on wet roads with maintaining stability and contact on dry roads, as existing profile structures either compromise on dry road handling or fail to efficiently remove water on wet surfaces.
Innovation Solution
The tire features surface drainage grooves on the shoulder side with a special geometry, widest at the connection points to transverse grooves, allowing effective water absorption and drainage without compromising the stability of profile elements, ensuring continuous ground contact across conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If large closed blocks or ribs are provided in shoulder-side profile areas, then good driving properties on dry roads are ensured, but water drainage performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The profile band is segmented by transverse grooves that divide it into multiple profile elements. These grooves create a structured pattern that maintains block stability while introducing drainage pathways. The segmentation allows the tread to simultaneously provide structural integrity for dry road contact and channels for water evacuation.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the tread are given different properties: the shoulder areas maintain larger closed blocks for dry road stability, while the central areas incorporate drainage grooves for water removal. The transverse grooves are strategically positioned to create local drainage channels without compromising the overall structural integrity of the profile bands.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If profile structures are made small and open, then water drainage performance is improved, but stability and contact on dry roads deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The drainage function is added in the circumferential dimension through transverse grooves that run across the profile bands. This dimensional addition allows water drainage capability to be introduced without reducing the radial height or structural mass of the profile elements, thereby maintaining dry road stability while enabling wet road performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The transverse grooves act as intermediary elements that connect the water removal function to the existing profile structure. These grooves provide drainage pathways without requiring a complete redesign of the profile blocks, serving as a mediating feature that reconciles the conflicting requirements for stability and drainage.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If drainage grooves are provided in profile bands, then water drainage capacity is increased, but stability of profile positives deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The transverse grooves are designed with asymmetric characteristics: they have varying depths and widths that are optimized for drainage efficiency while maintaining structural integrity. The grooves are positioned and dimensioned to remove water effectively without creating weak points that would compromise profile stability during dry road operation.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
AI summary
A pneumatic vehicle tire having a tread which, in at least one shoulder region, has a profile strip (1, 1') which is separated from further profile elements (1b, 1'b) by a circumferential channel (2) of encircling form in a circumferential direction, wherein a multiplicity of transverse channels (3) which are spaced apart in a circumferential direction run in the profile strip (1, 1'), which transverse channels end at a distance (a) before the circumferential channel (2). At the end of transverse channels (3) nearest the inside of the tread, water expulsion grooves (4, 4') running in a circumferential direction open in, which water expulsion grooves have, at least over a major part of the extent thereof, a depth of 1.5 mm to 3 mm, and which water expulsion grooves have a width (bi) which decreases over the extent thereof, wherein said water expulsion grooves have the greatest width (bi) thereof at the start thereof at a transverse channel (3).