How not to drift on ice
Research by Alex de Schipper & Marnik van het Ende
alex_deschipper@hotmail.com
marnikvhende@hotmail.com
ATR24
Summary
Road salt is often spread on roads during the
winter. This is done to prevent the formation
of ice and to increase the grip of tires on the
roads. The road salt works by lowering the
freezing point of water after it has been
dissolved. Applying the salt to the roads costs
a lot, not only in terms of money but also in
terms of damage to the environment. This
raises the question: Is there an alternative to
road salt? There is a product that claims it is:
ice-grip resin. In this report you will find the
results of measurements done with ice-grip
resin on tires. The purpose of this whole
experiment was to see how much effect the
resin had on the resistance of the tire in
relation with the icy surface it is slipping on. In
our report it became evident that the ice-grip
resin improved the tires grip on ice by 10% to
50%. These results raised a second question. Is
ice-grip resin actually better then road salt
both in terms of grip and in effects on the
environment?
Introduction
To solve the problem of uncontrollability of
your car during winter a number of solutions
have been applied. A well-known and widely
used solution is the application of salt and
sand on the roads. In countries where the
winters are more extreme it is hopeless to try
to solve the problem of slipping in this manner
since it would require too much effort to put
that much salt and sand on the roads every
day. In countries, like Scandinavia, the
problem is solved on another level which is
more effective on a larger permanent scale.
This alternative solution is based on a mixture
of different methods to make the tires have
more grip. Driving more slowly is logically the
best method to avoid accidents. Other
methods include the use of four-wheel
propulsion, riding on snow tires (tires with
more grip in cold conditions), the use of snow
chains or the use of a snow-grip tire spray.
In our inquiry we will only focus on the
unknown snow-grip tire spray.
Our inquiry question is: What changes can be
made to a tire to reduce the risk of slipping?
Our hypothesis is: snow-grip tire spray is a
good alternative in the pursuit of safety and
environmental well-being.
According to the promotion of this German
product there is a 100% more grip (twice as
much grip) to the surface of the road in icy
conditions. The spray stays on the tires and is
thus effective for ten kilometers before it
wears off. (The product is not widely spread
and difficult to find, making it more interesting
to test.)
In order to test the effectiveness of the tire
spray, experiments were done on different
roads surfaces, with different sizes of tires and
different weighted tires, the results will be
shown in this report.
Experimental design
-Experiment 2 tires on ice
-Experiment 1 Tires on asphalt
Materials:
Materials:
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-water
-piece of a slim tire (12 cm in width)
-piece of a large tire (17 cm in width)
-stones as weights
-Newton-meter
-road-surface
Methods
In this experiment the amount of force
needed to move the tire across the asphalt at
a constant speed was measured.
Measurements on both wet and dry asphalt
were taken. The tires were weighted down
with bags filled with stones. The weight of
both tires was measured with a scale with an
acuracy of 0,1 kg and it was made sure that
both tires weight the same. The only
difference between the two tires were the
width and surface area. The same piece of
asphalt was used constantly and equal
amounts of water were used on the road
surfaces. Measurements were taken by
attaching a newton-meter with an accuracy of
0,1 Newton to the tires, dragging the tire at a
constant speed and reading off the scale. Four
measurements were taken of each situation.
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-lane of ice
-piece of a slim tire (12 cm in width)
-piece of a large tire (17 cm in width)
-ice grip resin (snow-grip tire spray)
-Newton-meter
-stones as weight
Methods
In this experiment the amount of force
needed to move the tire across a lane of ice at
a constant speed was measured by attaching a
Newton-meter at the tire and dragging it
across the ice while reading off the force
needed (which is the resistance of the tire).
Measurements on both wet and dry ice were
taken. The wet ice simulated a road surface
with partially molten ice. Clear smooth ice was
used and the surface was kept constant for
every particular measurement. The same
amount of resin was used on both tires as well
as the weight of the tires was kept constant.
At least Four measurements were taken of
each situation.
Results
Conclusion & Discussion
Resistance of pieces of tire
On asphalt
A lot of interesting phenomena’s can be
noticed from the results of the experiments.
The first thing worth noticing is that there is
no difference in resistance from the small and
the larger tire when being pulled on asphalt
with weights on. From this we can conclude
that when a lot of weight is put on tires the
surface area it touches has no more influence
on the resistance, above a certain amount of
force the resistance is only dependent on the
pressure on the tire. In the situation of a car
on a road (which situation we tried to
duplicate as best as we could) this would
mean that heavyweight cars have a smaller
chance to drift beyond control in road curves.
Also worth noticing is the fact that when a tire
slips on a wet surface it has a resistance of +/80% compared to when it slips on a dry
surface.
Halving the amount of pressure on the tires by
using weights of 3kg instead of 6kg did not
halve the amount of force needed to make the
tires move. This force was much less.
The resistance of a tire on ice is almost ten
times less than the resistance on the road.
It became apparent while doing
measurements that the resistance of the tires
on the ice got smaller with every second as
the ice on the surface melted. The surface
became more wet with every measurement.
The purpose of this whole experiment
was to see how much effect the resin had on
the resistance of the tire in relation with the
icy surface it was slipping on. Or in other
words, is applying snow-grip spray to your tire
really effective to stop a car from losing
control on an icy road? Concluding from the
measurements it has become evident that the
grip on ice has been increased by 10% to the
maximum of 50%. There is also no difference
between the resistance on a wet surface and a
dry surface of ice, the resin is in both
situations as effective. The increase in grip
was not as high as 100% as the marketers of
the German product claim but the difference
is significant.
-Dry surface
6kg weight
Weight of tire
only
-Wet surface
6kg weight
Weight of tire
only
-Dry surface
3kg weight
-Wet surface
3kg weight
Slim tire
12cm
71N
4,0N
Large tire
17cm
71N
10,3N
63N
3,2 N
63N
9,1N
Slim tire
12cm
22,2N
Large tire
17cm
25,2N
20,5 N
24,8N
Slim tire
12cm
8,5 N
Large tire
17cm
9,0 N
6,5 N
7,6 N
On ice
-Dry surface
6kg weight
-Wet surface
6kg weight
On ice with Snow-grip tire spray
-Dry and wet
surface
6kg weight
Slim tire
12cm
9,5 N
Large tire
17cm
11,2
Our conclusion partly supports our hypothesis,
however it is not sufficient. To eliminate any
danger it is recommended to adopt a number
of solutions as snow tires, snow chains,
stubbed tires and sand on the roads. The
problem could be solved with salt but as we
have shown it is more dangerous when there
is water on top of ice, so melting the ice would
not be recommended if the ice has not
completely disappeared.
Evaluation
There was no high quality scientific equipment
available for the experiments; as a result the
collected measurements were not very
accurate at all. In the experiment on ice, the
ice started to melt with each pass of the tire
over the surface. Therefore the results varied
but it did show an interesting occurrence
namely that water on top of ice is even more
slippy than ice alone . This experiment could
be repeated in an environment where the
temperature is below freezing point to create
more constant results. The weight being put
on the tires was scaled down as it is too
difficult and expensive anyhow when using a
whole car. However the surface area of the
tire was not scaled down, this results in
measurements do not match up with the
reality but the overall conclusion is still
apparent. In order to get more relevant
measurements the experiment can be
repeated full scale using a real car on an iceskating lane or properly downscaled using a
more accurate measuring tool.
Further inquiry questions could be: Is snowgrip tire spray more environmentally friendly
then road-salt? And: What is the effect on
road-salt compared to tire spray on the
integrity of the tire?
Bibliography: Snowgrip Reifenspray (Die haftkraft bei schnee und eis)