ME584 Project: Under Pressured

Aubrey J Hocker, Student, ASME

Abstract
This paper aims to contribute a better understanding of the different factors that affect tire pressure loss in older vehicles (greater than 18
years) as they relate to weather and corrosion. The results were expected to show a linear relationship between weather conditions and
temperature fluctuations, thus, showing an older vehicle has increased tire pressure loss. The data was collected over nine weeks from
September to early November of 2021 using a Tire Pressure Measurement System to collect real-time data. Pressure readings were adjusted for
temperature fluctuations relative to the previous intervals. After careful model comparison, it was found that the parameters most involved
with tire pressure loss were time and temperature with a negative and positive influence, respectively. A final comparison was made with the
expected pressure loss per month to determine if there was a significant difference between the pressure loss profiles. It was determined that
after simulating roughly 2 weeks of comparative pressure loss that there was no significant difference between the expected loss of 1.5 PSI per
month using a 99% confidence interval. A real-time parameter estimation procedure was developed and provided in the Appendix below.

Index Terms—Sampling, tires, cars, Buick, pressure, controllability, robustness, sensitivity, optimality, weather, temperature, corrosion, high
mileage, safety

1 BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION weather, and thus crashes [5]. Since the internal pressure
cannot resist the weight of the vehicle as well the tire gives
way more causing deformation. Because of the severity of the

D riving a vehicle is a staple in the United States of America

with a large majority of said vehicles having an average age
over 12 years as of 2021 [1]. With ever-rising prices for cars
and the recent pandemic that has changed the way we travel
and how much we travel, it’s not much of a guess to say that
people will hang on to their vehicles longer. What’s more, is
that with older vehicles still in use there will be increased the
number of problems/mechanical failures that arise due to
common over time as well as corrosion from the different
seasons and regional pollution. This includes corrosion around
the wheels of one’s car. A study by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration from 2013 stated that people were 71%
more likely to die in a car accident if the car was 18 or more
years old [2].
The rims of a car are often made of an aluminum alloy
since they were popularized during the 1980s [3]. Thus
meaning, they are not impervious to corrosion and are more
susceptible to it as years and wear affect them without proper
maintenance. This degradation of wheel/rim quality affects the
sealing nature of the wheel and tire concept and further the
amount of air needed to refill the tire back to a preferable
level. Having adequate tire pressure is a very important factor
in calculating efficiency, which also affects the pollution in the
vehicle. Tires that are underinflated can lower gas mileage by
0.2% for every 1 psi drop in the average psi of all tires [4]. This
means that the engine works harder to keep speed or change
it, increasing exhaust and thus increasing pollution.
The tires are also damaged more because of the
increased amount of contact between the material of the tire
and the friction of the road. Additionally, a poorly inflated tire
is stretched and warped more because it cannot retain its
natural shape [5]. It can also lead to tread separation in hot
underpressurized tires as well as the increased age of vehicles
on the road it is ever more important to develop a digital
control. It could help predict when a car tire is likely to be
affected by not only the age of the vehicle (or its wheels in
particular) but also weather from day-to-day. It is then possible
to save people time, money, and possibly their life.
The vehicle being studied is nearly 20 years old and
has over 222,000 miles, meaning its components are more
likely than a vast majority of cars to suffer component failures,
especially that of wheel/rim corrosion. Recently, it has had to
fix and reseal two of its rims and tires due to corrosion and
wear, so the effects are very real, indeed. The tires are less
than 3 years old, but the body and rims are nearly 21 years old.
A current remedy in place that can aid in the
observation of tire pressure are real-time pressure sensors [6].
Many are easy to attach to a car by using the sensors as the
valve stem cap to the tire. Multiple brands are also wireless
allowing the driver to operate the vehicle while monitoring.
This may seem like a perfect fix to the problem, however, the
only time that the tool is useful is during observation. Being
able to predict how the pressure leaks will react to the
weather, standard ware, and age would be more effective.
Further constraints that affect the study include the
measurement tools and location of the vehicle. The pressure
gauges may release different amounts of air from a tire
depending on the brand and technology used in the gauge.
This could mean that after several measurements the tire loses
more air than if it only leaked air. This would need to be
accounted for. The location of the vehicle also affects the leak
rate of the tires since it sits in a concrete parking lot and is high
above sea level. The increased heat absorption of the parking
lot during the day and the increased heat loss at night is thus
different compared to other surfaces such as pavement or
grass. The difference in sea level may also affect the leak rate
compared to a vehicle of similar status at or even below sea
level. All these constraints are stated to bring across the idea
that the results of this study should be perceived as a good
starting point and that more studies need to be done to
compare different models, ages, environmental conditions,
and even different brands of tires.
This paper will follow the study of a 2002 Buick Park
Avenue that is further described in section 2. Data will be
derived from various weather databases as well as direct
sampling from the vehicle in question. Section 3 will be
comprised of the experimental design and method. The results
of the experiment and parameter estimation will be in the
following section 4. These estimations will be checked for
consistency and general convergence in section 5 followed by
sections 6-8 detailing different approaches to data fitting.
Finally, section 9 will involve optimizing the model and
a discussion on the differences between methods. This will be
followed by section 10 which will talk about any
implementation issues and further conclusions.
∙Aubrey J Hocker is with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue
University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
E-mail: hockera@alumni.purdue.edu .
2 SAMPLING AND QUANTIZATION
In this section, we will detail the specifics of the
vehicle as well as the factors involved that help determine the
model to be identified. Firstly, the vehicle is a Buick Park
Avenue standard model sedan made in 2002. It has over
222,000 miles on the engine/body of the car. The tires are over
3 years old while the front rims/wheels have never been
replaced or refurbished. It has had regular maintenance since
2014.
Before then, the car had been maintained in a garage
for a good majority of its life in northeast Indiana. The tires
have a maximum limit of 40 pounds per square inch (psi) while
the vehicle is rated at 30 psi. The average loss of air pressure is
often caused by natural leakage, or permeation is about 1.5 psi
per month on average [7], [8]. See the figure below for a more
detailed view of the tire and rim permeation.
Fig. 1. Tire Permeation of Air [8]
The air we breathe is commonly the same air that is
put into a tire. It is primarily comprised of nitrogen but has a
significant amount of oxygen as well. This oxygen has an easier
time permeating the wall of the tire due to its smaller size. Tire
pressure loss can be compounded by another factor which is
the corrosion of the wheel/rim the tire is wrapped around.
Corrosion of, often, metal rims can create channels, pockets, or
even cracks in the structure of the rim which the tire is not
designed to seal.
In the vehicle being studied the rate of pressure loss
is significantly quicker than normal even though it has the
same standard mixture of air in its tires. This is believed to be
caused by the ~20 years of wear and tear the wheels have
undergone both due to weather and use. Recorded tire
pressure will be represented by the dependent variable P along
with any reference to the change in pressure represented by
∆𝑃.
The temperature, 𝑇, of the air between each
recording will be noted. This is because tire pressure by itself
has been found to change with the rise and fall of the air
temperature around the tires. Often, an increase or decrease
of 10 degrees Fahrenheit can, on average, change the internal
pressure by 1.5 psi [7], [8]. However, it is also important to
understand that there are many tire sizes, and thus, different
recommended pressures. As noted by the Memphis,
Tennessee Meteorologists; the pressure of a tire depends on
both the weather and the operating pressure designated by
the manufacturer [9].
What complicates the matter further is that pressure
does not change equally. When the temperature rises the air
pressure in the tire may increase by 1psi on average.
Conversely, as temperatures decrease the internal pressure can
decrease by 2psi for every 10 degrees of difference [10]. With
this in mind, temperatures throughout the day need to be
analyzed and countered to reduce errors in the system. The
values are expected to be within 45℉ and 90℉ for the
duration of the experiment due to the climate history of the
location [11]. Values outside this range are also acceptable.
This will be further explained in section 3.
To account for the change in temperature, the
difference in temperature from the original recording to the
next will be used to calculate the actual pressure of the tire by
taking the reading and adjusting for the change, see Eq. (1).
and (2). below.
−1*∆𝑇 −1.5*∆𝑇
𝑃𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 {𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑇, 10
+ 𝑃𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝐹𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑇, 10
+ 𝑃𝑅𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑑
(1)
Where, ∆𝑇 = 𝑇𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 − 𝑇𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡
(2)