AIR PERMEABILITY INVESTIGATION TOWARDS AUTOMOTIVE TYRE PRESSURE SUSTAINABILITY AND LIFE SAVING

One of the main reasons for major road accidents which often lead into loss of life's is the catastrophic \ntyre failure caused by vehicles running with improper tyre pressure. The phenomena where tyre loses \npressure naturally and contracts over time is called air permeation, which is identified to be the main \ncause of tyre to deflate but rarely can be realised by naked eyes. Properly inflated tyres can safe tyre \nlife up to 20% which is equivalent to nine months of its life span, save fuel from 4% to 10%, increase \nbraking efficiency up to 20%, lightens steering system and ease selfsteer. \nTherefore, this paper \nreveals the investigation findings by analysing the factors that affect the air permeation that eventually \ncauses pressure loss in an automotive tyre. The experimentations were performed in both static and \ndynamic conditions where they were also tested with and without loaded situation to extract precise \ndata of the pressure loss from tyre. The results show that no matter what type of tyre or condition it \nundergoes, it still experience pressure drop but at different rate subjected to air properties, temperature, \ntyre materials and mechanical fittings of the wheel. © 20062015 \nAsian Research Publishing Network \n(ARPN).