Rolling Resistance - Primary Cause

Primary Cause

The primary cause of pneumatic tire rolling resistance is hysteresis:

A characteristic of a deformable material such that the energy of deformation is greater than the energy of recovery. The rubber compound in a tire exhibits hysteresis. As the tire rotates under the weight of the vehicle, it experiences repeated cycles of deformation and recovery, and it dissipates the hysteresis energy loss as heat. Hysteresis is the main cause of energy loss associated with rolling resistance and is attributed to the viscoelastic characteristics of the rubber.

-- National Academy of Sciences

This main principle is illustrated in the figure of the rolling cylinders. If two equal cylinders are pressed together then the contact area is flat. Consider a particle that enters the contact area at the right side, travels through the contact patch and leaves at the left side. Initially its vertical deformation is increasing, which is resisted by the hysteresis effect. Therefore an additional pressure is generated to avoid interpenetration of the two surfaces. Later its vertical deformation is decreasing. This is again resisted by the hysteresis effect. In this case this decreases the pressure that is needed to keep the two bodies separate.

The resulting pressure distribution is asymmetrical and is shifted to the right. The line of action of the (aggregate) vertical force no longer passes through the centers of the cylinders. This means that a moment occurs that tends to retard the rolling motion.

Materials that have a large hysteresis effect, such as rubber, which bounce back slowly, exhibit more rolling resistance than materials with a small hysteresis effect that bounce back more quickly and more completely, such as steel or silica. Low rolling resistance tires typically incorporate silica in place of carbon black in their tread compounds to reduce low-frequency hysteresis without compromising traction. Note that railroads also have hysteresis in the roadbed structure.