Flexible cellular solid spokes of a non-pneumatic tire

Non-pneumatic tires (NPTs) have been introduced with a compliant cellular solid spoke component which functions as the air of the pneumatic tire. In this paper, hexagonal honeycomb spokes for a high fatigue resistance design are investigated by seeking compliant hexagonal structures that have low local stresses under macroscopic uni-axial loading. Using the honeycomb mechanics, two cases of hexagonal honeycombs are designed: (i) the same cell wall thickness and (ii) the same load carrying capacity. The elastic limits of the hexagonal honeycombs are obtained from the ABAQUS finite element code considering the geometric nonlinearity of a cellular structure associated with the cell wall buckling and bending. The compliant cellular structures having low local stress values are applied to the honeycomb spokes of an NPT for the structural validation and the local stresses of the honeycomb spokes are investigated under the same vertical loading conditions. Hexagonal honeycombs with a highly positive cell angle have low local stresses and low mass under the same vertical load carrying capability; the Type C honeycomb spokes in this study. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.