Nanoscale Wear Mechanics-driven Durable Tire Design
The overall goal of this project is to establish a nanoscale, mechanics-based understanding of wear and fatigue processes that govern tire durability and service life, and to translate this understanding into design-relevant guidance for durable tire compound development. Tire durability and service life are governed by nanoscale mechanical damage processes that occur within tread compounds during repeated tire–road contact. These processes include crack initiation, viscoelastic fatigue, filler–polymer debonding, and localized energy dissipation. Conventional durability evaluations rely on bulk abrasion testing and full-scale wear trials, which provide performance rankings but do not resolve the mechanistic origins of material degradation. This project develops a mechanics-based approach to durable tire design by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) as a controlled nanoscale tribological tool to directly generate and measure wear under well-defined loading, shear, and temperature conditions. AFM enables direct observation and quantification of damage initiation at the scale where wear originates, allowing durability to be addressed at its physical root rather than through empirical correlation.
- Record URL:
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $69,985.00
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Contract Numbers:
69A3552348335
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
University of Missouri Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri United States 64110 -
Performing Organizations:
Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
University of Missouri Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri United States 64110 -
Principal Investigators:
Chowdhury, Indranil
- Start Date: 20260101
- Expected Completion Date: 20261231
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Durability; Mechanics; Nanostructured materials; Tires
- Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Materials; Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01987053
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Healthy and Durable Transportation
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348335
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 25 2026 12:25PM