What's a good gas to inflate tires with?

[Chingon]

Well, they are doing 100% nitrogen down in Mexico, but it just seems like the weight savings would be minimal (seeing how air is composed of 70% nitrogen already). So what about helium or some other inert light gas? How do you think different gases may impact sidewall stiffness, mass, buoyancy, etc, etc... How well would they work after tire reaches operating temperature?

[SmithSR]

Won't be any benefit worth the hassle, unless you're driving an airplane.

It's really uncharted territory to the masses, and it'll never catch on, considering people don't ever bother to check their air pressure, let alone worrying about choosing what to pressurize their tires with.

I bet Q45tech has a book's worth of info about it and if you asked him in the engineering forum he may provide you with links to present day use.

[DarkStar]

oxygen?

[Silvia007]

Air from a local SA is pretty popular.

[bcar240]

how about hydrogen? if we arn't gonna use it for fuel cells it might as well go to use... I guess blowouts might have a new meaning.

[Cygnus_X_1]

from how stuff works...http://www.howstuffworks.com/nascar5.htm

Nitrogen Instead of AirMost of the teams remove the air from the tires and replace it with nitrogen. Compressed nitrogen contains less moisture than compressed air. When the tire heats up, moisture in the tire vaporizes and expands, causing the pressure inside the tire to increase. Even small changes in tire pressure can noticeably affect the handling of the car. By using nitrogen instead of air, the teams have more control over how much the pressure will increase when the tires heat up.

[Chingon]

well, I had forgotten about Gay Lussac's expansion of gases theory that basically says all gases expand the same as temperature rises. So that theory of nascar would be true if mist particles or condensed water accumulates in the tire. However, if it's vaporized w/the ambient air already, there shouldn't be a problem.

[Nismo_Freak]

how about hydrogen? if we arn't gonna use it for fuel cells it might as well go to use... I guess blowouts might have a new meaning.

Hydrogen is a pretty reactive gas... I wouldn't introduce it to an organic solid and then heat it.

Nitrogen is the best gas to use... and frankly you could get your own nitrogen tank filled and use that at home.

[book-ends]

If you could trick out the tires with a voltage source, and small clear panels then you should run argon and bling those bad boys down the block......

.....NEON STYLE!!!!

[w1ngzer0]

essp if it gets over 200 degrees.... But i don't think tires get that hot... O_o;.

I would see any advantages to using hydrogen in tires. You would have to use the liquid or solid form. The only way to use gas hydrogen is a certain metal that it sticks to.

I think air is the best due to the fact the air doesn't change as much as nitrogen or any other gas. Its a slow steady gas thats why we breathe it

[SoCalS14]

The only gas I have is from last nights dinner!

[bcar240]

I was jokin about the hydrogen. But like everyone said, nitrogen is the only other gas I have really heard about being used in tires. It is used in many "high preformance" applications where the reaction to temperature change needs to be as precise as possible, like the space shuttle.

[silencer.1]

Nitrogen is the only gas that would work other than normal air. Hydrogen and Helium are too small of atoms and would diffuse through the tire/valve into the air. Hydogen is also way too flamable. Every time you blew a tire it would set the car on fire. I don't know about you, but I don't want a hydrogen filled tire anywhere near my fuel tank... Also solidified or liquid hydrogen is hella hard to produce. Solidified hydrogen occurs so close to absolute zero that there is no way it could ever be used in an aplication like this.

The thing about nitrogen is that it's as safe as you can get and always expands at a predictable rate making calculations much easier for high stress environments.

For our aplications, air from the local gas station is the only thing we'll ever need.

[hannibal]

Nitrogen is the only gas that would work other than normal air. Hydrogen and Helium are too small of atoms and would diffuse through the tire/valve into the air. Hydogen is also way too flamable. Every time you blew a tire it would set the car on fire. I don't know about you, but I don't want a hydrogen filled tire anywhere near my fuel tank... Also solidified or liquid hydrogen is hella hard to produce. Solidified hydrogen occurs so close to absolute zero that there is no way it could ever be used in an aplication like this.

I agree with your conclusion but have concerns about one of your points. Compared to the holes found in naturally porous rubber, the sizes of a nitrogen, hydrogen and helium atom are nearly equal. I promise you hydrogen or helium wont diffuse thru a tire.

hydrogen = Hinderburg, nuff said...Helium is pretty rare. I imagine it would be more expensive (than nitrogen) due to the procedures used to harvest it from natural gas and other sources.Nitrogen would be the best choice, but as someone said, air is about 70% nitrogen anyway, and I'd rather get air at a gas station for 2 quarters.And SoCalS14, methane is much heavier than air!
Modified by IWannaS15 at 4:50 PM 9/16/2004

[ILikeMy240sx]

The only gas I have is from last nights dinner!

hahaha lolz funny

you guys have no sense of humor being all serious and what not haha

[Bruno240]

nitrogen is used because it is a larger atom and will not leak as easily as normal air does. but like someone said earlier, normal air already is 70% nitrogen. so its not that big of a difference. Tire Discounters just likes it bc the normal person doesnt know anything about it and thinks, ohh nitrogen, that must be really good for the tires and i shoudl buy from them because nitrogen soudsn really good. The general population doesnt know that the air you breath and ussually in yoru tires is 70% nitrogen.