If we said that one of the most interesting places in our Solar System from a scientific point of view “works” like a Formula 1 tire you would probably take us for crazy (and maybe not too wrongly), but as we gathered technical information for the next piece of analysis we realized a curious analogy, in our opinion well worthy of a few minutes of reading in August. Before diving into the cosmos though, let’s stay on trackfocusing on it on the tires of the single-seaters. During the race weekends the shell temperatures are cited countless times, as well as the famous (or very famous) “operating window”, and the various references to amount of energy that the cars somehow “unload” on the tires. There are actually two ways to raise the temperature of the tires, one can consider “bad“While one”good“. The bad one is to exploit (or suffer from) it slipping of the tire on the track. A car without, for example, sufficient downforce, or that is being driven beyond its limitwill suffer a marked slip of the tire on the asphalt and this will lead, as it is easy to imagine, to a raising of the surface temperature of the rubber. This in general is a method that is used when it cannot be done otherwise, such as at the start with the so-called “burn out” when lining up or when the car fails to generate enough energy in the tires, and somehow the driver “forces” the sliding of the tires through driving, in an attempt to raise temperatures. However, slipping causes heating only superficial of the compound, and has various characteristics negativelike a greater thermal instability and in general a consumption exponentially greater of the covers, with a appreciable shortening of the useful life and extremely negative impacts on performance.
Things are very different when he intervenes downforce and the so-called “energy” that is transmitted from the car to the tires. There shoulder of Formula 1 tires is particularly high. It was enormously with 13-inch wheels, but it remained so noticeably even with the new 18 wheels, since the overall diameter of the tire has in any case increased by 60 millimeters. This causes the deformation of the carcass of the rubber remains one of the key factors of energy transmission from vehicle to tire. A heavily loaded car limits slipping to a minimum, deform vertically the tire naturally and, by tackling the curves with greater speed, it tends to generate above all a marked lateral deformation. All this obviously happens while the tire rotates, so with a deformation that runs along the entire carcass of the tire. This “crushing” and this lateral deformation continues generate heatwhich however is no longer just superficial, but part from the inner layers of the gum and radiates outward. The entire rubber undergoes a uniform thermal process, remaining much more stable in operating temperatures and guaranteeing maximum performanceand therefore maximum grip and, as an obvious consequence, greatly reducing wear.
Photo: europa.nasa.gov
We therefore ascertained that the deformation of the rubber due to external forces that compress And deform laterally the tire generates heat that radiates from the inside towards the surface. Here it comes from the curious parallel which came to mind during our analyzes. As anticipated, given the holiday period, a brief digression may be of interest and for this reason we are proposing it to you. There is a particularly interesting and curious place in our Solar System. The second moon of Jupiter, named Europeit is indeed a world particularly fascinating. Its surface is entirely covered with one thick layer of ice, and for this reason it already represents a particularly rare case of water concentration on a single extraterrestrial celestial body. The most incredible thing however is that it is considered extremely likely to be beneath the thick ice sheet of the surface there is a real ocean of liquid water. The question that arises spontaneously then becomes how it is possible that there is liquid water on a body so far from the Sun as to have a surface temperature maximum around -160 ° C. The answer lies in the same mechanism seen above with the deformation of the tires. The orbit of Europa around Jupiter, in fact, it is not a perfect circle due to the effect of resonance with the orbit of the other moons of the gas giant, and it is at the same time extremely fast, taking only about 3 and a half days to make a full circle around the planet. However, being close enough to Jupiter, Europa suffers massively the enormous gravitational force of the largest planet in the Solar System, but, with the continuous approaching and moving away from it, this force is never constant and this phenomenon is so powerful that literally warp the entire moon with every turn. This deformation process generates a huge amount of heat, which radiates from the inside to the surface. Scientists believe this heat is abundantly sufficient to guarantee the presence of a huge liquid ocean (some estimates speak of as much as 150 km of depth) under the ice crust and makes Europe one of the most unusual candidates to host of life forms extraterrestrials, thanks also to a combination of other favorable factors. So, with the obvious and appropriate differences, a completely similar physical phenomenon represents on the one hand the correct functioning of a Formula 1 tire, on the other hand it offers a huge ocean to a remote corner of our Solar System. As for Europe, NASA has finally managed to dedicate a slice of its budget to it and the probe by 2024 Europe Clipper it should leave for Jupiter to arrive there in 2030 and begin studying the moon from which it takes its name with a series of steps up to just 25 km away from the surface. As for the tires and a series of other considerations on the current season, we certainly won’t have to wait that long and we’ll see you in a few days.
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