Performance Target Conflicts in Normal Tires and Ultrahigh Performance Tires

Tire development is a demanding task following the requirements of original equipment and replacement under challenging cost considerations and legal requirements. A tire development engineer faces a multiple set of customer-oriented performance requirements often conflicting with each other and making it difficult to achieve a balanced optimum. The way of gaining the necessary know-how to apply design measures, target oriented, is described, and a qualitative overview on the findings is given. The most important performance conflicts, which can be related to the main tire domains (tread pattern and compound, tire contour, and construction), are described. Most of the chapter is dedicated to the explanation of the described conflicts based on rubber physics and tire mechanics. The reasons for the dominating performance conflicts of UHP tires between handling, high speed, and wear resistance are given in detail. Some ideas for future possible improvements based on material innovations and interactions with vehicle control systems are discussed. Keywords: cornering stiffness; grip; multiple performance analysis; performance conflicts; rubber compound; rubber physics; tire contour; tire construction; tire development; tire mechanics; tread pattern; virtual development process; wear resistance