Predictive Indoor Wheel Testing of Heavy Duty Truck Tires

Abstract

Abstract An indoor wheel test for heavy duty truck tires has been developed to predict in-service failures of commercial and developmental tires. The test, run at slow speed and high load to emphasize stress and fatigue rather than heat, is based on the premise that repeated high stress is the principal cause of in-service tire failure. These stresses occur when dynamic or transient overloads are caused by road bumps, load transfer during braking and cornering, or dual tire configuration on non-uniform surfaces. Although these overloads may occur infrequently, they can become very significant in the long distances run by truck tires. Other current heavy duty truck tire tests are generally run at higher speeds, emphasizing heat resistance of rubber compounds, or else are low-speed, much-overloaded bead tests which are unrealistically severe. Since its development in 1974 the present test has been broadly predictive for many belt, carcass, or fatigue related in-service failures of both bias and radial commercial and developmental truck tires. The test is called “The DuPont High Load Wheel Test” to distinguish it from other low-speed-high-load tests.