Bicycle Tire Friction
Most recent answer: 05/16/2013
Q:
Thanks for all the answers u have given.
1)Can u tell me the directions in which friction works between tyre of a bicycle and road when the cycle is in motion. Please give me detailed explanation.
2)Why does friction independent of area of contact.But in case of tyres of bike a more flat tyre will have more grip with the road than a thin tyre.Here grip means the locking of spaces of tyre with the spaces of the road(adhesiveness).Therefore grip of tyre is dependent on the area of contact.But friction also mean the locking of the same spaces(adhesiveness).But why is friction independent of area of contact. Please answer this.
- Prudhvi Raj,Borra. (age 16)
Machilipatnam,Andhra Pradesh,India.
- Prudhvi Raj,Borra. (age 16)
Machilipatnam,Andhra Pradesh,India.
A:
1. If you\'re peddling enough to accelerate (or even maintain your speed against the wind) then something is exerting a forward force on the bike. The friction with the road is the only candidate. So the friction force on the bike points forward and on the road points backward. (Remember that as you pedal, the tire starts to turn, pushing backwards on the road.) If you\'re braking, the force points the opposite way. If you\'re coasting, the frictional force on the tires is very small.
2. You\'re right that the type of tire, and its inflation, can change the contact area. You\'d guess that big contact areas would allow more friction. On the other hand, the smaller the contact area, the more pressure (upward force per area) the road exerts on the tire within that area, since the pressure times the area has to equal the supported weight. In other words the tire and the road are more tightly pressed together when the contact is small. It turns out that these two effects approximately cancel, and the maximum friction force is more or less given by a material-dependent friction coefficient times the \"normal\" force (up-down, here) between the surfaces.
Sometimes we need a more accurate description of the friction. People who really care about friction (eg, drag racers) maximize the contact area in order to maximize the adhesiveness of the tire to the road. Especially in uneven conditions, the large contact from a slightly squishy tire does a better job of keeping contact somewhere, rather than occasionally bouncing out of contact.
Car and bike tires have grooves in them, which might seem strange since it reduces the contact area. Their main purpose is to improve performance when the road is wet. The water goes into the grooves and does not form a slippery film between the tire and the road. The improvement of wet-road performance outweighs the degradation in dry-road conditions.
Mike W. , Jon T, and Inga K.
2. You\'re right that the type of tire, and its inflation, can change the contact area. You\'d guess that big contact areas would allow more friction. On the other hand, the smaller the contact area, the more pressure (upward force per area) the road exerts on the tire within that area, since the pressure times the area has to equal the supported weight. In other words the tire and the road are more tightly pressed together when the contact is small. It turns out that these two effects approximately cancel, and the maximum friction force is more or less given by a material-dependent friction coefficient times the \"normal\" force (up-down, here) between the surfaces.
Sometimes we need a more accurate description of the friction. People who really care about friction (eg, drag racers) maximize the contact area in order to maximize the adhesiveness of the tire to the road. Especially in uneven conditions, the large contact from a slightly squishy tire does a better job of keeping contact somewhere, rather than occasionally bouncing out of contact.
Car and bike tires have grooves in them, which might seem strange since it reduces the contact area. Their main purpose is to improve performance when the road is wet. The water goes into the grooves and does not form a slippery film between the tire and the road. The improvement of wet-road performance outweighs the degradation in dry-road conditions.
Mike W. , Jon T, and Inga K.
(published on 05/16/2013)