Scope

This SAE Aerospace Information Report (AIR) describes the current process for performing comparative wear testing onaircraft tires in a laboratory environment. This technique is applicable to both radial and bias tires, and is pertinent for allaircraft tire sizes.This AIR describes a technique based upon “wear” energy. In this technique, side wear energy and drag wear energy arecomputed as the tire is run through a prescribed test program. The specifics that drive the test setup conditions arediscussed in Sections 4 through 7. In general, the technique follows this process:• A test profile is developed from measured mechanical property data of the tires under study.• Each tire is repeatedly run to the test profile until it is worn to the maximum wear limit (MWL). Several tires, typically 5to 10, of each tire design are tested.• Wear energy is computed for each test cycle and then summed to determine total absorbed wear energy.• An index is calculated for each tire design. This is accomplished by dividing the total linear inches of wear at the mostworn point into the total wear energy.• The indexes are then normalized to provide a comparative wear rate.The described technique is not meant to provide an absolute wear rate or wear index because the technique does notproduce results that allow the user to say a tire will last for a specific number of landings. However, it does provide acomparative index. It will make a distinction from one tire design to another by indicating a percentage difference inabrasive wear rate under representative operational conditions. The technique has beendemonstrated in a number oftest programs and is shown to have an extremely high correlation to field data. Supporting data is included in Section 9.

General Product Information

Published
Document Type	Standard
Status	Current
Publisher	SAE International
Pages
ISBN
Committee	A-5C