TIRES

Abstract: The invention relates to a set of tires for mounting on a vehicle which has at least two driven wheels and at least two steering wheels. The set of tires is characterized in that it comprises tires which have different tread designs for use on the left hand side and right hand side steering wheels. The different tread designs of the set of tires comprise a plurality of elongated relief elements (6) which extend across the tread width (TW) with the direction of the major axis (8) of their central ellipse of inertia (7) making an angle α,β with the mid-circumferential plane M-M of the tires. The present invention provides an optimum cornering stability for both left hand side and right hand side cornering for a vehicle being equipped with a set of tires according to the invention.

Description: The invention relates to sets of tires for vehicles having at least two driven wheels and at least two steering wheels, each wheel being provided with a pneumatic tire, the tires intended for use on the left and right hand steering wheels being different from one another Such a set of tires is for example shown in FR-A-2 157 211. In this prior art publication the tires which are mounted on the left hand side wheels of the vehicle are different from the tires which are mounted on the right hand side wheels of the vehicle. The object of this earlier invention is to improve the self cleaning of farm tires, i.e. of tires that are used on agricultural vehicles that generally operate in loose ground. In contrast to this prior art publication, the set of tires of the present invention is intended to be used on high performance passenger vehicles, in order to improve the cornering stability of these vehicles. By high performance passenger vehicles are meant vehicles which are capable of exceeding speeds of 190 km/h. It is well known that the tire on the outside steering wheel of a cornering vehicle, i.e. the steering wheel on the side of the vehicle furthest away from the center of curvature of the trajectory of the cornering vehicle, counteracts the major part of the cornering force as the load of the vehicle is primarily transferred to this wheel. There is provided by the invention a set of tires providing an optimum cornering stability for both right hand side and left hand side cornering which is obtained if the resultant cornering force, which is always directed towards the inside of the vehicle on which the tires are mounted, is counteracted by substantially all relief elements of the ground engaging tread portion of the outside steering wheel, i.e. if the relief elements of the tire on the outside steering wheel are arranged in such a way that they all provide their highest stiffness in a direction which is substantially parallel to the direction of the resultant cornering force. This can be accomplished by mounting tires of different tread designs on the left hand side steering wheel and right hand side steering wheel. The tire which is mounted on the left hand side steering wheel of the vehicle may have a ground engaging tread portion comprising elongated relief elements which are all arranged such that the direction of the major axis of its central ellipse of inertia makes an angle with the mid-circumferential plane of the tire and is oriented in the direction of the central portion of the letter "Z¨. The tire which is mounted on the right hand side steering wheel of the vehicle may have a ground engaging tread portion comprising elongated relief elements which are all arranged such that the direction of the major axis of their ellipse of inertia makes an angle with the mid-circumferential plane of the tire and is oriented in the direction of the central portion of the letter "S". The orientation of the elongated relief elements in terms of the letters "S" and "Z" refer to the orientation of the elements as seen by an observer of the tire, looking towards the axis of rotation of the tire. In the art of material science, the central ellipse of inertia of an element is a means for characterizing the stiffness of that element in a particular plane. In the tire art, the stiffness of interest is the resistance that the relief elements oppose to the tangential forces applied to the relief elements. The stiffness of a relief element of a tire tread is generally measured by the deflection of the relief element under such tangential forces, the deflection in a particular direction being inversely proportional to the moment of inertia of the relief element in that direction. Further details concerning the determination of the central ellipse of inertia of an element can for example be found in "Strength of Materials" by S. Timoshenko, published by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, in 1958. Particularly of interest are pages 417 up to and including 428. It is preferred that all measurements relating to tires in the following description and claims of the invention be expressed in terms of measurements that are made on the footprints of the tires, i.e., on the imprint that a tire makes on the ground when it is mounted on a specified rim, inflated at a design pressure and subjected to a rated load for said design pressure. It follows that, since the footprint of a tire provides an image of the ground engaging tread portion of a tire which is the reversed image of that seen by an observer of an actual tire, the tire which is mounted on the left hand side steering wheel of the vehicle shows an "S"-type orientation of the major axis of the central ellipse of inertia of the elongated relief elements in the footprint, while the tire which is mounted on the right hand side steering wheel of the vehicle shows a "Z"-type orientation of the major axis of the central ellipse of inertia of the elongated relief elements in the footprint. It is further appreciated that the direction of the major axis of the central ellipse of inertia of each relief element is defined in a system of Cartesian axes, the center of the Cartesian axes of each relief element being located at its center of gravity, the x-axis being the axial direction of the tire and the y-axis being the circumferential direction of the tire. Throughout the specification the terms "axial" and "axially" relate to displacements along the axis of rotation of the tire, and the terms "radial" and "radially" refer to displacements perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the tire. The mid-circumferential plane M-M of the tire is a plane normal to the axis of rotation and which is located midway between the lateral edges of the tire footprint. A pair of tires for mounting on the steering wheels of a vehicle as described in the preamble of claim 1, is disclosed in document FR-A-794.233. A pair of tires providing excellent cornering performance as well as a vehicle equipped with such tires are described in the characterizing portion of the annexed claims. The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a view of the ground engaging surface of an elongated relief element of a tire which can be used on the steering wheels of a vehicle of the present invention. Figure 2 shows relief elements separated by narrow grooves. Figure 3 is a schematic representation of the footprints of a set of tires mounted on the steering wheels of a vehicle according to the invention. Referring now to Figure 1, there is illustrated an example of an elongated relief element 6 of a tire tread with the central ellipse of inertia of its ground engaging surface. The ground engaging surface of the relief element 6 has a rectangular cross section with side lengths h and b. The moments of inertia (I z , I v ) of the relief element 6, which form the principal axes 8,9 of the central ellipse of inertia 7, pass through the center of gravity of the element and are parallel to its sides. The moment of inertia I  relative to an axis forming an angle  with the major axis 8 is defined by the following formula: I  = I z cos² + I v sin² (A) For a rectangular element as shown in Figure 1, the following equations for I z and I v apply: in which: I z = main inertia moment relative to the z-axis I v = main inertia moment relative to the v-axis I  = moment of inertia of a plane section which makes an angle  with one of the main axes. b = side length of rectangular sectioned element h = side length of rectangular sectioned element. Equation (B) defines the central ellipse of inertia 7 of the ground engaging surface of the relief element 6, as shown in Figure 1. In the example shown side length b is equal to 2 times the side length h. Equation (B) for b=2h reduces to: I  = 4 6 h⁴ cos² + 1 6 h⁴ sin² (C) Since the stiffness in a particular direction of a relief element 6 is proportional to its moment of inertia, equation (C) shows that the stiffness measured parallel to the major axis 8 ( = 0°) is four times greater than the stiffness measured parallel to the minor axis 9 ( = 90°). Figure 1 further illustrates the Cartesian axes 5 positioned in the element 6 and consisting of an x-axis and an y-axis and the four associated quadrants respectively first, second, third and fourth quadrant, labelled in Figure 1 as 1,2,3 and 4, which are used throughout this specification as a reference set of axes for defining the orientation of the central ellipses of inertia the x-axis being the axial direction of the tire and the y-axis being the circumferential direction of the tire. While the relief element 6 shown in Figure 1 consists of a continuous block uninterrupted by grooves, the invention equally applies to tire treads comprising relief elements 6 comprising juxtaposed individual blocks separated by narrow grooves 10 as shown in Figure 2. When a tangential cornering force is applied to the ground engaging tread portion of the juxtaposed individual blocks, the narrow grooves close up in the footprint of the tire, with the result that the individual blocks act as single, uninterrupted relief elements and hence as single elongated relief elements as described above. It is generally considered in the tire art that narrow grooves which have a width W that is smaller than 1 % of the tread width TW close up in the footprint of the tire. The tread width TW of a ground engaging tread portion being defined as the greatest axial distance between the tread edges TE₁, TE₂ of the ground engaging tread portion when measured from a footprint of the tire (see Fig.3). Figure 3 shows a schematic representation of the footprints of a set of tires, according to the invention, which can be mounted on the steering wheels of a vehicle, whereby the tread portions of the tires comprise elongated relief elements 6 having central ellipses of inertia 7 with the direction of their major axis 8 making an angle with the mid-circumferential plane M-M which is not constant across the tread width TW but which varies across the tread width TW. Indeed, the angle which the direction of the resultant cornering force makes with the mid-circumferential plane M-M of the tires of the steering wheels of a vehicle is not a constant but changes with such factors as: speed of the cornering vehicle, cornering radius, camber angle, vehicle load etc. It is therefore advantageous to dispose the relief elements in the footprint such that they provide their highest stiffness over a wider range of directions, i.e. to spread the angle which the direction of the major axis of the central ellipse of inertia of the relief elements makes with the mid-circumferential plane M-M over a wider range. According to the present invention, this angle is in the range of 45° to 80°, and the central portion of the ground engaging tread portion of the set of tires comprises elongated relief elements 6 which each have a central ellipse of inertia 7 with the direction of their major axis 8 making a first angle α,β in the range of 45° to 65° with the mid-circumferential plane M-M, while the shoulder portions of the ground engaging tread portion comprise elongated relief elements 6 which have a central ellipse of inertia 7 with the direction of their major axis 8 making a second angle γ,δ in the range of 60° to 80° with the mid-circumferential plane M-M. By central portion of the ground engaging tread is meant the portion of the tread that extends on either side of the mid-circumferential plane M-M over about 25 % of the tread width TW and by shoulder portions are meant the portions on either side of the central portion which extend from the edges of the footprint over about 25 % of the tread width TW. In the example shown in Figure 3, the elongated relief elements 6 situated in the central portion of the ground engaging tread portions of the set of tires have central ellipses of inertia 7 with the direction of their major axes 5 making first angles α,β of about 60° with the mid-circumferential plane M-M, while the elongated relief elements 6 situated in the shoulder portions of the ground engaging tread portions have central ellipses of inertia 7 with the direction of their major axes 8 making second angles γ,δ of about 80° with the mid-circumferential plane M-M. While the present invention has been described with reference to a set of tires for mounting on a vehicle having two steering wheels, the invention is not limited to use with such a vehicle, but equally applies to a set of tires for use with a vehicle having more than two steering wheels. It is preferred that for the embodiment shown in Fig. 3, the ground engaging tread portion of the set of tires which is mounted on the left hand side of the vehicle is the mirror image of the ground engaging tread portion of the tire which is mounted on the right hand side of the vehicle. While the invention provides that at least the steering wheels, e.g. the front wheels of a vehicle, should be equipped with a set of tires according to the invention, it is further preferred that the rear wheels are equally equipped with a set of tires according to the invention. This applies especially to vehicles having a weight distribution such that the main portion of the weight of the vehicle rests on the rear axle of the vehicle. In this case, the rear wheels have to counteract the major part of the cornering force and in particular the outside rear wheel of the cornering vehicle as the load of the vehicle is primarily transferred to this wheel. The invention is intended to be used on passenger vehicles. By passenger vehicles are meant vehicles that are characterized in that they are equipped with tires comprising a ground engaging tread portion of which the net-to-gross ratio, i.e. the ratio between the surface of the relief elements of the ground engaging tread portion and the total surface of the ground engaging tread portion as measured in the footprint of the tire is greater than 50%.

Claims: A pair of tires for mounting on the steering wheels of a vehicle, having each a ground engaging tread portion comprising, as measured in the footprint of the tire, a plurality of circumferentially arranged substantially rectangular relief elements (6), a net-to-gross ratio greater than 50%, the treads of said tires having structures such that using Cartesian axes (x,y) wherein the center of the Cartesian axes of each relief element is located at its center of gravity and the x-axis being the axial direction of the tire and the y-axis being the circumferential direction of the tire, a first portion of the ground engaging tread portion of each tire comprising first relief elements (6) which have the major axes (8) of their central ellipses of inertia (7) disposed at a first angle (α,β) of about 45° with respect to the y-axis of the respective Cartesian axes; said first angles (α,β) being located in the second and fourth quadrants for one of the tires and in the first and third quadrants for the other tires, characterized by a plurality of circumferentially extending arrays of said relief elements (6), said first portion being the central portion of the ground engaging tread portion comprising said first relief element (6) which have said major axes (8) disposed at said first angle (α,β) of between 45° and 65°, and a second portion of the ground engaging tread portion of each tire being disposed axially outwardly of said first central portion and comprising second relief elements (6) which have said major axes (8) disposed at a second angle (γ,δ) between 60° and 80° with respect to the y-axis of the respective Cartesian axes. A pair of tires according to claim 1, characterized in that said first angle (α,β) is about 60° and said second angle (γ,δ) is about 80°. A pair of tires according to Claim 1, characterized by the relief elements (6) consisting of uninterrupted, continuous blocks. A pair of tires according to Claim 1, characterized by the relief elements (6) consisting of juxtaposed individual blocks, separated by grooves which have a width smaller than 1% of the tread width. A pair of tires according to any of Claims 1-4, characterized by the footprint of the ground engaging tread portion of each said tire being a mirror image of the footprint of the ground engaging tread portion of the other tire. A vehicle having at least two steering wheels with a pair of tires according to any of Claims 1-5.

Inventors: FONTAINE, JEAN FRANCOIS LEON
Applicants: THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY
Application year: 1988
Main classification: B60C11
IPC codes: B60C11, B60C19