Tire tread block dynamics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how flash temperature affects tire tread block dynamics, presenting a theory and experiments on macroasperity contact regions, revealing that contact size is largely independent of elastic modulus and pressure.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis of tire tread block motion considering flash temperature effects and provides experimental validation for macroasperity contact size independence.

Findings

Flash temperature influences tire tread dynamics.

Macroasperity contact region size is largely independent of elastic modulus.

Experimental results support the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Temperature has a crucial influence on rubber friction and tire dynamics. The temperature field in a rubber tread block is the sum of the background temperature $T_0({\bf x},t)$, which varies slowly in time and space, and the flash temperature $\Delta T({\bf x},t)$, which in nonzero only close to the macroasperity contact regions, and which varies rapidly in time often on the millisecond time scale. Here we study the motion of a single tire tread block and how it is influenced by the flash temperature. We also present a theory and experimental results for the size of the macroasperity contact regions. In particular, we show that for a large enough nominal contact area, in most cases the diameter $D$ of the macroasperity contact regions are nearly independent of the elastic modulus and the nominal contact pressure.