Theoretical Investigation of Spokes Geometry of Non-Pneumatic Tires for Off-Road Vehicles

Extensive studies of off-road non-pneumatic tires (NPTs) were conducted for light and heavy equipment due to their advantages over conventional pneumatic tires in terms of low rolling resistance, thus no need for air pressure maintenance. Finite element (FE) simulations of NPT contact pressure, contact shear stress, vertical stiffness, von mises stress, and rolling resistance were performed using ABAQUS software in a series of vertical loads to simulate tire models of three different spokes geometries on unpaved soil to verify NPT performance under different conditions. The spokes geometries were hexagonal (honeycomb) spoke, hexagonal re-entrant (Lattice) spoke and spoke with curvature called spoke pairs. It was found that the rolling resistance of the honeycomb structure has the lowest value, while the contact shear stress and contact pressure were the highest.