Evaluation of Passenger Car Tire Failure in Saudi Arabia

Tire failures, including catastrophic tread separation and blowouts, are common events that lead to serious road accidents in Saudi Arabia. In this paper, a field investigation of eight different brands of tires in Saudi Arabia was performed to understand the reasons for tire failure. Their performances were monitored in the field for a period of 10 months and then subjected to laboratory tests to investigate the effect of field conditions on the mechanical properties of the tires at the end of the performance period. The selected tires were chosen based on a previous survey conducted to determine tires which failed commonly and rarely the best four and the worst four brands in terms of failure rate were selected for this study. Field performance was measured via the strength and ductility of the tire materials, in addition to the failure events reported during the service period. Laboratory tests were performed on used and new tires to determine the effect of in-service conditions on tire properties. The laboratory tests included strength, peeling, tensile, elongation, bead unseating, endurance, and high-speed performance tests. With regard to the new tires, all the tested brands passed the internationally adopted tire quality control tests. However, the results indicated some differences between the frequently and infrequently failed tires in terms of some physical properties and the percentage of failed tires during field use.