Tyre design

Tyre is one of the complex engineering products yet deceptively looking simple.
Entire control and safety of the vehicle depend on the small contact patch the tyre
makes with the road and the mechanisms therein while the tyre rolls, as at the
steering wheel, the only link which connect the driver to the road is the tyre.

The history of tyre shows various eras of development as it evolved from providing
the function of just rolling to that of controlling the vehicle. The distinct eras are
classified as Empirical, Analytical and Electronic eras

The empirical era was associated with the first generation vehicles wherein the
function of tyre was limited by friction and load. The insight on tyre was limited and
development involved considerable trial and error methods. Analytical era then
followed with increased awareness of tyre cornering requirements and significance
of slip angle and tyre performance criteria was defined. The present prevailing
electronic era uses tyre-vehicle simulation methods to find out optimum tyre
responses to input forces from the road-vehicle system and the tyre can be tuned
for optimum vehicle performance. The sensors embedded in the tyre make them
intelligent to give inputs to the driver for optimum control and safety through
electronic control systems like ABS, ESP etc.

The functions of a tyre are;

Transfer of lateral forces, transfer of longitudinal forces, vertical load bearing and
damping. Vehicle dynamics is all about the coordination of braking/accelerating,
steering and tires to obtain optimal driving control and safety. The tyre designing is
a highly complex subject as it is all about optimizing the tyre performance for a
number of conflicting requirements.

An example of the requirement-tradeoff matrix is given below.

Requirement Design Aspect Trade-off

Dry traction Softer tread Faster wear

Aqua planing resistance Stiffer tread at center Tread vibrations

Stiffer belts

Water channelling Diagonal grooves Directionability

Lower vibration & Noise Softer tread at center Early Aquaplaning

Higher belt angles

Quick steering/Cornering Lower Aspect ratio Reduced comfort

response Wider rim
Biased cords

Lower aspect Lower sidewall Aesthetics

Higher speed capability Lower tread mass Mileage

The tyre design involves optimizing the properties for transfer of forces in
longitudinal direction which is for effective acceleration, braking and overall traction
and for forces in lateral direction for developing sufficient lateral and cornering
forces to offset the centrifugal pull of the vehicle while negotiating curves at higher
speeds. Reinforcement in vertical direction is designed for inflation bearing and
load carrying as well as for damping for absorbing shocks to provide comfort for
ride.

Looking at the above given trade off matrix, it is easier to compromise on one
aspect to improve another. But the tyre design research is about meeting all the
required properties with minimal compromise. Design of high performance tyre
design involves increasing the critical speed of the tyre at which the tyre
experiences standing waves and subsequent failure. To increase the critical speed
the tension of the carcass along the circumferential direction has to be increased
through spiral wound cap plies and by the reduction in tread mass through
optimized tread depths and tread gauges. Lower tread mass reduces the
centrifugal pull in radial direction to increase tyre durability at higher speeds.

The spider chart showing the changes in performance changes to create tyres for
touring and sport application from a standard tyre.
For winter tyres, a higher number of sipes and special tread compound have to be
provided for generating efficient grip in ice and snow.

Hydroplaning is another area for the designer to work on. Reduced hydroplaning is
a performance requirement for which the speed at which the hydroplaning starts
for a tyre has to be raised to a higher level. Hydroplaning occurs due to buckling of
the tyre tread for increased hydro-dynamic pressure build up due to the inefficiency
of the tyre to remove water from the contact patch in the given time to establish
contact. Groove designs with suitable direction and with sufficient volume to
contain water can minimize hydroplaning.

Tyre is to provide both mechanical comfort and acoustic comfort. For mechanical
comfort the tyre should be designed in such a way that it is uniform all around in
stiffness and in mass distribution. Also the conicity force it generates should be
within approved limits. For the acoustic comfort the noise generated by the tire
while running should be minimum. Through design, noise-generating capability of
the tyre can be minimized. Some common methods are about optimizing the tread
block shapes and arrangement to make them vibrate in wider frequency range to
avoid resonance and providing offset between the top and bottom halves of the
tyres to cancel out pressure disturbances the pattern creates.

Aesthetics plays an import part in tyre design as the customer preference of buying
a tyre can be based on how good a tyre looks on his vehicle. Tyre designer can
play with letter styles and features on tyre sidewall but the real challenge is to
create beauty in a black background.

Several tools are used for tyre design; Computer aided design and Finite element
analysis are very powerful tools being used by major companies presently.
Prototype development and model testing are used for validating the simulation
results prior to finalizing the design. FMEA (Failure mode effect analysis) is
another tool employed by interface departments involved in tyre development,
which anticipates possible failure modes in a particular tyre to design it to avoid
such failures in service.

Lessons for any product design can be learned from nature and the branch of
design, which deals with this aspect, is called “Bionic design”. For eg: to improve
in tyre grip, the mechanism by which a lizard grips and climb the wall can be
studied. To optimize the pressure distribution, an elephant foot can be studied as
to how effectively it distributes the load to minimize pressure, which is generally
less than the pressure inside most of the tyres.