Question:

Is it friction? Please help.?

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Why does the tires of a car get hot when it is driven?

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  1. From the friction..................


  2. Mainly from the repeated flexing of the rubber.

  3. The tire is a little flatter on the bottom because of the weight of the car.  When the tire spins around, the walls of the tire flex.  This flexing causes internal friction.

    This is why an underinflated tire will get hotter, in fact if it's seriously underinflated it could blow out from the heat.

    There's also a certain amount of friction from the road, but the friction from flexing walls is more.

  4. Any tyres operating temperature (when it is offering the most grip) firstly depends on what type of rubber compound has been used to create the tread pattern. Its the tread pattern (the grooves you see on a tyre that contact the road) that is most important. A tyre is made up of various layers of steel and rubber, more steel is in the sidewalls. The sidewalls are there simply to give support to the the weight the tyre is carrying, thats why they have more steel in them. But the tread is whats touching the road and thats where the grip is (contact patch). Any two surfaces in abrassive contact will create friction and that = heat. Rub you're hands together quickly and you'll see what I mean. So a sports tyre will heat up quickly and offer a high level of grip, but wear quickly too. Thats why race teams worry about tyre wear during races. If you over inflate a tyre it will wear quickly on it's centrer line as thats the only part touching the road. An under inflated will quickly wear both outer edges. This is because the contact patch has less steel reinforcing to push the contact patch down. And also remember, rubber has a finite level of grip (regardless of the specific compound used) thats why you can wheelspin a car in a straight line, you've overpowered the grip of the tyre. Do the same thing in a corner and you'll crash (sideways). I hope this helps cos the short answer is; yes, contact with the road produces heat in the contact patch of the tyre (friction) which will then be passed to the rest of the tyre. But wrong tyre pressures could result in the contact patch being reduced and resulting in localised overheating and premature (catastrophic) failure of the tyre

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