Before delving into the best possible way what are car wheels areall about and why they are usually the first thing to go when talking about upgrade let’s first have a look on a research that took place on 1990. The research was done after the break down of the wheels on some cars during race. The wheels were heated and this thermal energy caused in aging of the material which reduced its normal life.

There is a whole branch of science that is called “material resistance” and it’s about how materials can be made to sustain a long life with minimal resources. This science clearly analyzes the stress caused due to various reasons.

Researchers have found that residual stress is held in the wheels. When wheels are manufactured the material is processed on differnet ways. The annealing, forming and some other techniques leave the material in internal stress. This makes the tyre vulnerable and after sufficient load, thermal cracks will appear which will damage the material. This quickly leads to its complete destruction.

When we say residual stress, we are refering to all the stress that remains after the object is processed and then freed of all load. After some further discoveries, scientists found that the cracking is caused by fatigue of the material. It was a result of the fraction that was caused by the brakes. The thermal cracks were found on the axis of the wheel.

The real material resistance plan is about calculating both residual stress made during manufacturing and the stress caused during the service of the wheel. The second one could be done by setting math variables in proper formulae to watch for how the material is damaged during the process. This helps us in picking the right material for the time that we need to have before the product become unusable.

To see how we can control the residual stress we have to understand the manufacturing process in depth.

To make the wheels in the proper shape, a multi-step process is used. This is about making the inceptive form of the product. Then the residual stress is got released. This happens when a high temperature is applied. When we do that the particles of the material begin to move more quickly and reorganize in a better way. Usually the temperature that is used is around 871 °C. After the part is reheated it is cooled with a water spray. This causes in gaining the proper microstructure of the material.

For conclusion about the research we have to point that after it there is a way for simulation of service and checking how the wheels will respond then it is easy for experiments to be made and better products that will endure more and cracks will be not likely to appear.
One criterion of the wheels is the size of it. Simple mechanics could tell you that its one of the most important things about wheels because the size is linked to the speed.

When picking wheels, it is a must to know that different cars have different suspension and you have to ensure that the wheels are good for your car. You can see the specification of the wheels to secure yourself from making a mistake. The wheels are the component of the car that interact with the road and let it move so you have to be very careful while picking them.

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under Car Maintenance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.