VD Notes

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Wheels and tyres
. Types of wheel, construction of wired wheel, disc
wheel, tyre type & construction, aspect ratio,
specification of tyres, static & rolling properties of
pneumatic tyres.

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The wheel
 The wheels of the automobile support the total weight, resist the strains
created by turning and transmit the driving torque for propelling and braking
torque for retarding. The wheels must have well balanced construction
particularly for running at high speeds. Unbalanced wheel assemblies cause
excessive vibration which accelerates tyre and king-pin wear.
 The essential parts of a wheel are the hub which is mounted on the wheel
spindle and the outer rim on which a tyre is mounted. The hub and the outer
rim are connected by a spider made of a disc or spokes. A brake drum is also
connected to the hub. The construction of wheel varies with different types of
vehicles.
 Present day wheels are mostly of pressed steel construction. The spoked wheels
have the advantages of better air flow around brakes, slightly springy and have
sporty appearance. The disadvantages are more expensive, difficult to keep
clean, tubeless tyres can not be used on them and spokes can tend to get loose
in service.

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The advantages of smaller wheels
Road wheel sizes on modem cars have gradually tended to become
smaller. The advantages of smaller wheels are as follows

(a) Reduced unsprung weight, giving better road-holding.

(b) Lower initial cost.
(c) Wheel arches intrude less into passenger space.
(d) Smaller wheels decrease the height of the car and lower its centre of
gravity.
(e) Maximum steering lock angles can usually be increased as smaller
wheels require less space when on lock.
(f) Spare wheel requires less storage space.

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Tyres
 Automobile control, acceleration, and braking occur through the tyres
and their contact on the road surface.
 The tyres must be large enough and strong enough to support the
vehicle on the road. They develop tractive forces for accelerating,
cornering, and braking.
 The traction is the force required to make the tyre slip on the contact
patch which is the same in all directions whether it is accelerating,
cornering, braking, or any combination of, these.
 Tractive force to control the automobile drops rapidly when a skid
starts and the control is lost. The tyres must absorb, by deflecting, part
of the shock from road irregularities.
 During normal operation, passenger car tyres rotate approximately 500
revolutions for each km traveled. Pneumatic Tyre, tube tyre and
tubeless tyre are used in automobiles.

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The tubeless tyres
The tubeless tyres have the following advantages and disadvantages over the conventional tyre and tube.
Advantages of tube-less tyres
(a) Air pressure is maintained for a much longer period.
(b) Loss of air due to nail-type punctures is virtually eliminated.
(c) Slightly more resistance to impact blows.
(d) No possibility of nipping the tube while fitting.
(e) Ordinary punctures are easy to repair and in some cases can be repaired without removing the
tyre from the wheel.

Disadvantages

(a) Unsuitable for spoked wheels.

(b) Unsuitable for damaged or corroded wheels.
(C) Tubeless tyres are stiffer and give a slightly firmer ride.

 The chief factors affecting tyre life are inflation pressure, speed and rate of acceleration, wheel
alignment and steering geometry, brakes, road conditions, temperature, tyre interchanging, and tyre
and wheel balance. A tractor tyre normally is expected to last twenty years, a truck tyre 80,000 km, a
passenger car tyre 48,000 km, and a racing tyre 800 km.

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Desirable tyre properties
The automotive tyres in use have different functions to perform, for which they must possess
some desirable properties. It is seen that some of these properties are conflicting with
others, so that the final tyre design must incorporate the optimum combination of all
these.
The desirable properties are,

Non-skidding: This is the most important tyre property. The tread pattern on the tyre must
be suitably designed to permit least amount of skidding even on wet road.
Uniform wear: To maintain the non-skidding property, it is very essential that the wear on
the tyre must be uniform. The ribbed tread patterns help to achieve this.
Load carrying: The tyre is subjected to alternating stresses during each revolution of the
wheel. The tyre material and design must be able to ensure that the tyre is able to sustain
these stresses.
Cushioning: The tyre should be able to absorb small high frequency vibrations set up by the
road surface and thus provide cushioning effect.

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Desirable tyre properties ..contd
 Power consumption: The automotive tyre does absorb some power,
which is due to the friction between the tread rubber and the road
surface and also due to hysterisis loss on account of the tyre being
continuously flexed and released. This power comes from the engine
fuel and should be the least possible. It is seen that the synthetic tyres
consume more power while rolling than the ones made out of natural
rubber.
 Tyre noise: The tyre noise may be in the form of definite pattern sing, a
sequel or a loud roar. In all these cases, it desirable that the noise
should be minimum.
 Balancing: This is very important consideration. The tyre being a
rotating part of the automobile, it must be balanced statically as well as
dynamically. The absence of balancing gives to peculiar oscillations
called wheel wobble.

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Constructional details of a tyre

 A tyre is made from rubberized fabric piles over a rubber liner and the edges of the piles are
wrapped around a wire bead that holds the tyre to the wheel rim. The fabric piles are
covered with a rubber compound tread and a different rubber compound for the side walls.
The tyre is cured in a mould to vulcanise the parts into a single unit and form the tread
design.

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Types of tyres

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Types of tyres

Fig: Bias ply tyre, Radial tyre Bias belted tyre

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Bias ply and Bias belted tyres
 Bias-ply tyres allow the tyre to squirm as it goes through the tyre foot print or
contact patch. The tread is pushed together as it goes into the foot print. This
stores energy in the rubber. As it comes out of the foot print, the tyre rapidly
expands and goes beyond the neutral point into a stretched position. Closing
and opening of the tread as it goes through the contact patches is one of the
major causes of normal tyre wear.
 In belted tyres the tread stability and reduction of a squirm resulting up to
100% improvement in tyre running compared to bias-ply tyres. By holding the
tread shape, belted tyres run cooler, improve fuel consumption, improve
traction, and double blow-out resistance when compared to bias-ply tyres.
Belted tyres do not flex as easily as bias-cord tyres, so they transfer more road
shock into the wheels and suspension system and hence the wheel spindles,
knuckles, and suspension system need to be stronger.

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Radial tyres
 Radial-ply belted tyres have been built having radial ply cord, angles run from
88 to 90 degrees and the belt cords run from 12 to 20 degrees.
 The radial cord provides a soft side wall which produces a softer ride than
belted bias tyres. The belt (steel wires, fiberglass, or rayon around the radial
cords holds the tread shape through the contact patch or foot print.
 Radial belted tyres provide more cornering power and less wear than bias
belted tyres as a result of a lower slip angle. These tyre produce a harsh ride at
low speeds, requires a high steering effort especially when parking and are
expensive.
 The steel-belted radial tyre has less tread flexing so it rolls easiest, thereby
improving fuel consumption. What the radial belted tyres, loss of tyre-to-road
adhesion occurs suddenly, with little warming, especially on wet surfaces.

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Tyre size and series

 Tyre sizes are based upon the size of wheel rim, the load range, the capacity, and the tyre
series. Wheel diameter and width between rim flanges are measured at the wheel bead
diameter. Large wheel diameters require larger tyres which, in turn, support more weight.
Tyre sizes use a letter proceeding a number to designate tyre capacity. The ply rating has
been indicated with another letter to indicate the tyre load range.
 The series number indicates the approximate ratio of the tyre section height to the
section width. This ratio of height to width is called tyre Aspect ratio. If the height of
tyre is 78% of the width, the tyre is a 78 series. Passenger car tyres aspect ratios may vary
from 95% to 60%, the smaller number indicating a relatively wider tyre. Racing tyres may
have an aspect ratio as low as 35% to 45%. Tyres above 80% have bias-ply construction
and below 80%, they may be bias; however, they are usually belted bias and belted radial.
Fig shows cross section of tyre series proportions.

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Tread patterns

(i) highway rib, (ii) highway -cross rib, and (iii) special
service mud and snow (M+S) and highway rib extra
tread.

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Tyre rotation

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