Can a tyre “peel off” its rim when cornering at very high speed? Vincent
Not if the tyres are fully inflated. Even on a super grippy road with super grippy tread, the cornering force would cause the car to skid (or roll) before it peeled the tyre.
If, while skidding, the tyres struck a kerb, that might distort the sidewall of the tyre enough to allow the air to escape for a split second between the beading and the rim, but before much of the air got out the car would probably be on its roof. Or the strike could be shaped and forceful enough to completely rupture the tyre, in which case whether it remained on the rim in all or in part would be of no relevance.
Tyre casings need to be extremely flexible to do their job, but not where they tuck into the edge of a wheel rim. That part is rigid and strong, reinforced by a multi-strand steel cable (known as the “beading”) which is in turn held in shape and place by the tyre pressure.
While 30 psi pressure (pounds per square inch) might not sound like a lot, bear in mind that a lot of square inches are involved, squeezing a steel cable against a rigid and heavy-duty steel rim flange.
There is no possibility of separating the two against the inflation pressure without applying a force powerful enough to destroy the tyre or the rim or both. An axe and a hacksaw would succeed …but only after they had deflated the tyre.
The tyre beading is so strong that even if you keep driving on a flat tyre it will not readily peel. But the sidewall might twist and force the beading into the central well of the wheel rim, so the much more fragile tyre wall slips under the steel rim flange…under the car’s full weight. This will quickly destroy the flexible parts of the casing as the rim turns and the tyre “flaps”. Even then the beading is likely to remain intact.
To demount a tyre from a rim requires the pressure to be released and an extremely concentrated force to be applied systematically and progressively by long tyre “levers” or a hydraulic splitter press on a turntable.
