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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 at 16:03:23 :
In Reply to: Wikipedia cut and paste posted by David [76.103.64.254] on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 at 14:15:54 :
The people who sell nitrogen tire inflation claim that tire rubber reacts slowly with pressurized oxygen in an an air-inflated tire and slowly deteriorates. That means the reaction is happening slowly at room temperature. In the demonstration, there is some temperature reached at the point where the bead contacts the rim that was high enough to accelerate the oxidation of the rubber into a self-sustaining reaction. It would be interesting to know exactly what that temperature is. Now and then we hear of a high-pressure tire on a heavily loaded vehicle blowing out when being driven at high speed on hot pavement on a hot day. Could it be that the combination of high ambient temperature, higher pavement temperature, and increased tire temperature due to high-load high-speed flexing of the sidewall is enough to start a runaway oxidation process on rare occasions?
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