Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the mechanism of irregular wear of tires and propose ways for improvement of irregular wear. The physical wear model is developed for river wear occurring in truck/bus tires and shows that the irregular wear is initiated by forced wear due to lateral stress and is developed by self-accelerated wear due to longitudinal stress. The physical wear model is qualitatively in agreement with the observation of wear progress in rib patterns. Ways for improvement of irregular wear are to increase the Young's modulus of tread rubber or increase the crown radius to decrease the difference of radius between tire center and shoulder.
