Nitrogen fill

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Aircraft tires are filled with nitrogen because it simply reduces the risk of fires from overheated wheels. You're probably aware that aircraft brake/wheel assemblies get incredibly hot to the point that they use thermal plugs that will melt to give a controlled release of pressure on a tire before the chances of a blowout occur. At each tire replacement the wheels are given a hardness test to ensure that they have not been overheated to the point of destruction.

My company also uses nitrogen to fill the autoclave vessel when we do a high temperature/high pressure composite cook. This is also to prevent fires.
 
The air from a cylender is clean and dry which is the most benifit for cars. Your local air compressor has the same amount of water vapor as the ambient air. Here in Fl the humidity typically is 80-90 percent which yealdes about 0.5%? water
 
if you have a good dryer hooked up to an air compressor you do not get water vaor.

with the ammount of air it takes to inflate a big rubbe raft my dryer will have a teaspoon of water in it.

so when i fill my tires, i also see water in the dryer.
 
I've got to agree that this is a track only type issue. Boyle's Law (PV=nRT) certainly applies for all gases so the pressure does rise with increasing temps for nitrogen as well. The advantage in a race scenario is the lack of moisture in nitrogen as opposed to air. The water in air can boil at high temps just like in brake fluid. Tanks of "dry" nitrogen gas are readily available, "dry" air is harder to come by.
I just bought a set of Kosei K1 TS wheels for the Miata track buggy. Each wheel has *two* valve stems. One stem to let the air out while you fill the other stem with dry nitrogen. Mine just get air, my *driving* is my limiting factor.

Frank
 
Marketing BS. Blowouts in street tires come from heat, but it's almost always a result of underinflation.

See comment re: NASCAR above.

mr
 
I filled 4 of my tires with pure Nitrogen for FREE!

It is good when it FREE!
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PV = NRT

So although some uses of N may be worthwhile, I can not conceptualize pressure v. temperature differentials.

P = Pressure

V = Volume

N = Moles

R = Ideal Gas Constant 8.3145 J/mol* k

T = Temperature in Kelvin

so much as i remembered from intro chem, which i need to re-take as a refresher
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Outrun, there are four advantages of varying value to using N2 instead of air. Everything about N2 in tires is better than air except for the small price and inconvenience for most people.

1) N2 doesn't oxidize the inside of the tire like air. I've never had a problem with my tires oxidising from the inside.

2) Commercially available N2 is dry. Might be of some value if you are pumping your tires up with air that is humid enough that the water vapor in it goes through phase changes as the tire temperature varies. I've never seen that, but I live in a relatively low humidity climate.

3) N2 molecules flow though small holes slower than O2 molecules, so pressure won't drop as fast with straight N2.

4) N2 in your tires gives you bragging rights.

You might have guessed by now that I don't plan on going out of my way to put N2 in my tires.
 
All you guys filling your tires with nitrogen should install a filter too, to extend the air change interval.
 
quote:

Originally posted by ZmOz:
All you guys filling your tires with nitrogen should install a filter too, to extend the air change interval.

Full flow or bypass?
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One of nitrogen's claims to fame is that it doesn't leak out as fast as air. Since air is 80% nitrogen, the problem has to be with the 20% of the air that is oxygen. So it's self correcting problem.

Fill your tires with air and the tires let the oxygen molecules out faster then the nitrogen molecules, resulting in a higher than atmospheric concentration of nitrogen in you tires. Each time you top your tires off with air, more oxygen leaks out until you have almost all nitrogen in your tires.

Of plan B, the simple method, initially overpressure your tires by 20% and by the time the sneaky little oxygen molecules have escaped you will have the correct pressure with only the nitrogen left
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