Skidding friction The effect of hysteresis losses in tyre tread rubber

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Abstract
A vehicle skids whenever the friction between tyre and road is insufficient to meet the demands of the driver in accelerating, braking, or cornering. In wet weather, when the water film on the road acts as a lubricant, the friction between tyre and road may be greatly reduced. The magnitude of the friction between a tyre and a wet road depends on the physical characteristics of both the road surface and the tyre. Recent work has shown that when well-lubricated rubber slides over a hard surface, as in the case of a tyre on a wet road, a large part of the frictional resistance may arise from energy losses in the rubber as it is deformed by projections in the hard surface and then recovers. These are the so-called hysteresis losses. Evidence suggests that if the associated practical problems can be solved very worthwhile improvements in skidding friction may be obtained by the use of tyres in which the rubber of the tread has much higher hysteresis losses than the normal tyre tread rubber.