A Fuel Saving Passenger Tire

An engineering project to minimize rolling resistance of passenger car tires, with special emphasis on construction and materials, is described. Both empirical and theoretical approaches were employed in the study. Designed experiments, special experimental setups, and novel statistical methods were used to maximize the information obtainable from experimental tires.

A reduction of more than 20% in the rolling resistance of the subject tires, size P185/80R-13, was achieved within stated design parameters, while performance properties were maintained