Sign In 
Sign In
Sign In
Kaustubh Katdare
Electrical
24 Feb 2012
Does The Design Pattern On Tires Contribute To The Road Grip?
Have you ever wondered how the design pattern on the tire contribute to the road grip? I've had this question in my mind for long time and I stumbled upon following article on Michelin's website: https://www.michelin.co.uk/tyres/learn-share/tyre-basics/importance-of-tread-pattern
The article talks about the importance of the thread pattern on tires. The design pattern seems to help when the tire is subjected to wet road conditions. Greater the number of threads; the greater is the amount of water it can hold and displace quickly. The tire size size 195/65 R 15 can displace about 15 liters of water per second!
Then there's something called Groove Ratio: Higher the ratio of grooves to rubber; higher is tire's capacity to displace water.
I'm still a bit uncertain about how the tire grooves ensure more grip on regular, dry road conditions. Anyone?
The article talks about the importance of the thread pattern on tires. The design pattern seems to help when the tire is subjected to wet road conditions. Greater the number of threads; the greater is the amount of water it can hold and displace quickly. The tire size size 195/65 R 15 can displace about 15 liters of water per second!
Then there's something called Groove Ratio: Higher the ratio of grooves to rubber; higher is tire's capacity to displace water.
I'm still a bit uncertain about how the tire grooves ensure more grip on regular, dry road conditions. Anyone?
Tires grooves increase the traction in the tires. In-fact in high performance tires,a softer rubber compound for improved traction, especially on high speed cornering.
One more thing,the rigidity of the rough ground exerts oscillating forces on the surface of the rubber, which lead to cyclical deformations inside the material. This results in a large production of heat in the rubber and to a large friction force. At a certain frequency of these deformations the elastic modulus of the tire may increase one thousand fold. This naturally also changes the road holding properties.
Now, Michelin has invented the Anti-Splash tires.Its pretty amazing.Check out this.
www.ntrci.org/library/videos/truck_tire_anti-splash.aspx
One more thing,the rigidity of the rough ground exerts oscillating forces on the surface of the rubber, which lead to cyclical deformations inside the material. This results in a large production of heat in the rubber and to a large friction force. At a certain frequency of these deformations the elastic modulus of the tire may increase one thousand fold. This naturally also changes the road holding properties.
Now, Michelin has invented the Anti-Splash tires.Its pretty amazing.Check out this.
www.ntrci.org/library/videos/truck_tire_anti-splash.aspx
Kaustubh Katdare
Electrical
7 years ago
Do the Formula F1 tires have grooves as well?
No, f1 dry tires are smooth. (the rain tires do have tread) Compound is the big factor in grip. Also, in racing tread can cause squirm under lateral g forces. Tread does not help dry grip however it does help grip in wet, snow/ice and dirt. In the US, the DOT does have some minimal requirement for grooving to be street legal which creates the r-compound category of tire, which are street legal tires for racing. (these are the types of tires I use in racing) Since public roads can not only be wet but also have poor pavement, snow, ice, debris, sand & dirt racing tires would be dangerous as the smooth, sticky tires could not displace these and thus loose traction. Softer racing compounds also not only wear much faster but are also more greatly effected by temperature changes than street tires.
CE Designer
Branch Unspecified
7 years ago
I read somewhere a long time ago that the threads help create a suction between the tire and the road.
silverscorpion
Branch Unspecified
7 years ago
Kaustubh Katdare
Electrical
7 years ago
A dedicated page to that topic! Super!silverscorpionFormula One Tyres
The article says that the regulations were introduced and made it mandatory to have minimum 4 grooves to slow down the cars!
Is it just the skidding that'd keep the speeds in check? If not, how'd grooves reduce the speeds?
Only logged in users can reply.