Why should we prefer Nitrogen over Air inflation in car tyres?
Nitrogen inflation in car tyres is becoming a common practice nowadays. Why do people prefer using nitrogen over compressed air? The answer is here. There are many pros and cons to the usage of nitrogen in other car tyres. Let us look up some points on it.
Advantages:
Improved Performance: Air consists of 78% of nitrogen, 21% of oxygen and 1% of water vapour, carbon dioxide, and various other Noble gases that are not purely homogeneous. Non-homogeneous gases show varying properties at various points. While nitrogen, a single component shows homogeneous properties. Hence the pressure distribution of nitrogen is uniform and even throughout the tyre. This phenomenon results in the following advantages:
- Higher tyre life
- Increased fuel efficiency
- Endurance and stability of the vehicle
Reduction in the probability of tyre bursting: The specific heat of nitrogen (1.040 j/gm.K) is slightly higher than that of Air (1.005j/gm.K) which results in a considerable difference in temperature variation of both gases. Nitrogen having more density than Air shows lesser temperature variation in tyres towards friction heat and expands less than Air. Also, nitrogen shows lesser pressure change behaviour with temperature change. This feature reduces the bursting of car tyres when travelling longer distances. An additional advantage you will find is no requirement for repetitive tyre pressure check and it avoids pressure alarm during winter.
No oxidation due to Inflation: Atmospheric Air has a tendency of soaking water vapour with it which affects the life of the tyre and results in oxidation of rubber (reduce its elasticity and make it brittle) and corrosion to the metallic rim due to the reaction of moisture and oxygen present in Air. nitrogen behaves no such property and improves tyre quality and life.
No need for repetitive Air filling: Nitrogen molecules are comparatively bigger than composite Air molecules, also the density of Nitrogen is greater than Air, so it is difficult for nitrogen molecules to escape off the tyre body. Experimentally, it is proven nitrogen gas permeates 40% lesser volume than Air through rubber tyres. Nitrogen filling has an average cycle of 2–3 month which helps in avoiding repetitive air filling in tyres.
Disadvantages:
Costlier: Nitrogen filling is costlier while compressed air is free of cost with fuel. You need to pay every time you are filling nitrogen in your vehicle.
Availability: Very few fuel stations have nitrogen filling stations, so it is difficult to find their availability. Also if you use a portable car tyre inflator it will use atmospheric air instead of nitrogen.
Maintenance: Maintaining Nitrogen filled tyres is a little bit tricky because once you have filled nitrogen inside your tyres, it is necessary to use nitrogen only. If you use compressed air inside you will have no harm but you lose the advantages of nitrogen.
After observing various advantages over disadvantages we would prefer nitrogen inflation in tyres. Review your suggestions. Applause if you find it interesting!
Written by: Meet Shah(Instagram: @meet8600)
Vociferous Writers (Instagram: @vociferouswriters)
