Abstract

Advances in tire construction have led to major increases in tire life over the past twenty years, mainly by increasing the lateral stiffness and thus reducing slip during cornering. However, this general increase in tire life has tended to highlight the problem of uneven wear.

In the present paper, three new experimental techniques are described which have been developed to study treadwear distributions. These techniques are evaluated and their results compared with a finite element analysis. Taken together, they indicate some of the causes of uneven wear and may be used to identify tire design and service features which contribute to uneven wear.