Developments in tyre design for lower rolling resistance: a state of the art review

Future sustainability of road transportation will require substantial improvement in the efficient use of energy by road vehicles. As new technologies being deployed reduce total vehicle energy consumption, the contribution of tyre rolling resistance to total energy consumption continues to increase. For this reason tyre rolling-resistance is starting to drive the focus of many tyre developments nowadays. This is because the rolling-resistance can be responsible for 20–30% of the total vehicle fuel consumption. Thus, lowering the rolling-resistance would help to reduce the fuel consumption (i.e. CO₂, NOx and hydrocarbon emissions) and hence improve the environment greatly given the large number of vehicles used globally. It is found that the primary source of the rolling-resistance is the tyre deformational behaviour (i.e. hysteresis damping) which can account for 80–95% of the total rolling-resistance. This paper reviews the state of the art in tyre design, research and development for lower rolling-resistance, with focus on the primary source for the rolling-resistance (i.e. mechanical hysteresis damping), from three perspectives: the structural lay-up; the dimensional features; and the materials compound(s) of the tyre.