Airless Tire Conceptions Modeling

and Simulations

Michał Kucewicz, Paweł Baranowski and Jerzy Małachowski

Abstract In this paper a modeling methodology and results of Finite Element

Method simulations for selected non-pneumatic tires are presented. Additionally, a
new conception of airless tire was proposed by the authors. To describe mechanical
properties for components of tires a popular hyperplastic rubber constitutive model
was implemented. Static radial deflection test was performed and the influence of
internal structure geometry was investigated in terms of vertical displacement of
rim, deformation shape and contact pressure. Obtained results from all tested tires
were compared. For all tested conceptions stress distribution within the area of
internal tire structures were analyses. All simulations were performed using explicit
LS-Dyna commercial code.

1 Introduction

For the last few years everyone can observe a rapid growth of the automotive, civil
and military industries with new trends of development in each of these areas. Such
situation caused, that many companies are searching for new, more reliable and
safer technology, also in the tire industry sector. One of the results of such
researches is a development of an innovate Non Pneumatic Tire (NPT), which does
not require the compressed air to work. NPT or airless tires have many advantages
such as resistance for puncture, reduced fuel consumption, low maintenance and
improvement of passenger’s comfort due to better shock absorption [1]. However,
there are some disadvantages associated with a difficulty with dissipation of the heat
produced by friction and relatively high manufacturing cost, compared to traditional

M. Kucewicz
P. Baranowski (&)
J. Małachowski

Department of Mechanics and Applied Computer Science,
Military University of Technology, 2 Gen. S. Kaliskiego Str,
00908 Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: pawel.baranowski@wat.edu.pl

© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 293

E. Rusiński and D. Pietrusiak (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th International Scientific
Conference: Computer Aided Engineering, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50938-9_30
294 M. Kucewicz et al.

tires. NPTs became more popular in many fields, where traditional solutions are not
effective enough,.i.e. in military vehicles [2] (American light armored vehicle
Humvee) or in civil and mining industries (wheel excavators and dump tracks).
In this paper the authors present modeling and numerical simulations of selected
NPTs, each with different internal structure geometry resulting in different radial
load transfer between ground and car suspension system. For this purpose three
different tire models were developed based on available commercial NPTs.
Additionally the authors proposed the new conception of NPT called KucWheel.
All of those structures are tested in the same loading conditions: radial deflection
test under 10,000 N load. As a result of the simulations tire behavior, stress dis-
tribution for each component and tire deflection were taken into consideration and
compared. For numerical simulations Finite Element Method (FEM) implemented
in LS-Dyna commercial code was used.

2 Description of Non-Pneumatic Tires

In the paper three different NPTs were modelled: Tweel by Michelin, honeycomb
airless tire by Resilience Technology and airless tire conception by Bridgestone
(Fig. 1).
Michelin Tweel [4–6] conception has radially placed flexible spokes that connect
inner and outer components of wheel. In the Bridgestone tire spokes are not dis-
tributed radially and they are initially curved. Instead of one constant part there is
two rows of spokes with the gap in the middle of wheel, from which one is placed
in the opposite direction [7]. In both cases spokes are elements that provide load
transfer as the effect of deformation during rolling [8, 9]. Airless tire proposed by
Resilience Technology was inspired by natural honeycomb structure [10]. This tire
is widely used in military due to bullet puncture resistance. Due to its progressive
crushing and good energy dissipation properties it can provide a better safety of
vehicle crew during mine or IED explosions [2].

Fig. 1 Non-pneumatic tires chosen for simulations: a tweel, b honeycomb, c bridgestone airless
tire conception [3]
Airless Tire Conceptions Modeling and Simulations 295

Finally, a new conception of non-pneumatic tire called KucWheel was proposed,

which was developed taking into account advantages and disadvantages of
described constructions. It combines features of all of them. Internal structure close
to the rim has a radial spokes which are connected to cellular shape which starts
midway between tread and rim. Openwork structure is divided into three parts
spaced equally across the tire. One of them is placed in the center and is rotated
5.625° in order to give additional stiffness in each position during rolling.

3 Description of Numerical Models

Due to the fact that none of the companies does not provide information about
materials used and dimensions, all of executed numerical models were developed
based on articles, photos and press reports which are available on the internet [3].
The main purpose of this article was to compare the influence of internal
structure geometry for vertical rim displacement during radial deflection test. All
other parts: rim, cords, inner and outer layers are invariant—it eliminates additional
deformation caused by difference in measurements. Thickness of internal structure
layers was determined by the criterion of constant mass for every wheel. Models of
the tires were developed using beam elements (cords reinforcement), shell elements
(spokes) and solid elements (rim, tread, inner and outer band). Number of elements
and nodes in each discrete model is presented in Table 1. Figure 2 shows all three
discrete model of tested tires with the solution proposed by the authors. Figure 3
presents a slice of FE model of honeycomb tire.
The mesh sensitivity study was also performed to obtain proper results con-
vergence. Characteristic elements lengths equal to: 5, 10, 15, 20 and 35 mm were
used and verified [11]. As a result 10 mm element size was chosen to discretize all
FE models due to its relatively low simulation time, good deformation shape
projection and no effect on the tire stiffness. For the contact modeling a penalty
based contact algorithm implemented on LS-Dyna code is used [12, 16].
For article purposes it was assumed that all of the components except steel rim
and steel reinforcement are made of rubber. For each FE model of the tire three
constitutive material models available in LS-Dyna code were used [12] (Table 2):

Table 1 Statistic data of discrete tire models

Shell elements Solid elements Beam elements Nodes
Bridgestone 61,320 30,211 12,636 134,918
Honeycomb 29,280 33,992 14,688 105,992
Tweel 27,600 33,696 14,688 104,770
Kucwheel 45,846 30,376 13,312 116,334
296 M. Kucewicz et al.

Fig. 2 Discrete models of tires, a tweel, b honeycomb, c bridgestone, d kucwheel [11]

Fig. 3 Detailed discrete

model of tire with constituent
components: 1. tread, 2. cords
reinforcements, 3. outer layer,
4. internal structure (spokes),
5. inner layer, 6. rim [11]

Table 2 Material properties of rubber

Density q[kg/m3] A [MPa] B [MPa] Poisson ratio m [-]
Rubber 1173 0.806 1.8 0.45
Density q [kg/m3] Young modulus E [GPa] Poisson ratio m [-] Yield stress Re [MPa]
Steel 7900 210 0.3 229

• Mooney-Rivlin model [13] which is a non-linear hyperplastic material model

widely used to describe the characteristic of rubber. Its properties were taken
from the literature [14].
• Linear plasticity model of steel with parameters defined in [15].
• Rigid material model to describe non-deformable road.
Airless Tire Conceptions Modeling and Simulations 297

4 Boundary and Initial Conditions for Simulations

The radial deflection test under 10,000 N load was performed. This value of force
was adopted according to assumption that the tire is working with Humvee vehicle
of weight 4000 kg. The load was applied in the center of the wheel and distributed
to nodes on edges of the rim hole. Movement of rim was constrained: translational
degrees of freedom (DOF) in X and Y axis and rotational DOFs around Y and Z
axis (Fig. 4).
Due to large deformation and material nonlinearity it was necessary to use
nonlinear method to solve FEM equations. Therefore, iterative Newton-Raphson
solution was used [12].

5 Results and Discussion

Based on performed simulations characteristics of deflection as a function of

applied force for each tire were obtained and are presented in Fig. 5. The lowest
value of vertical displacement was obtained for Honeycomb cellular tire and is
equal to 21 mm. That means this tire is characterized by largest coefficient of radial
stiffness. Similar results are obtained for KucWheel conception, which achieved
21.6 mm. Larger values of deflection were observed for Tweel and airless tire
conceptions, which are 33.2 and 89 mm, respectively. Deflection curves for
KucWheel and Bridgestone tire are similar. The difference between these two

Fig. 4 Initial—boundary 10000 N

conditions applied in radial
deflection simulation [11]

x y
298 M. Kucewicz et al.

Fig. 5 Deflection versus applied load characteristic obtained from radial deflection test for each
tire; max. deformations are presented next to the curves [11]

Fig. 6 Distribution of contact pressure obtained from radial deflection test [11]

compared to the others is a result of the internal structure geometry and conse-
quently different load transfer between ground and suspension, what was described
in Sect. 2 of the paper. Looking at stress distribution (Fig. 7) it is clearly visible,
that in case of the cellular geometry, concentration of stress is located only in the
bottom part, where the deformation of openwork structure is the largest. Maximum
stress value for Honeycomb tire is equal to 1.81 MPa and can be observed in the
lowest area of the internal structure. In case of KucWheel the maximum value is
2.63 MPa located within a locally buckled free edge of the structure. Comparing
Airless Tire Conceptions Modeling and Simulations 299

Fig. 7 Distribution of Von Mises stress on internal structure with maximum values for each tire:
a tweel, b bridgestone conception, c honeycomb, d kucwheel [11]

that to non-pneumatic tires with thin spokes it can be seen that again maximum
stress appeared in spokes buckled due to compression (1.92 MPa for Tweel and
1.75 MPa for Bridgestone conception). Moreover, stress distribution can be also
observed in tension areas of the structure (0.25 MPa for Tweel and 0.5 MPa for
Bridgestone conception). Based on the results from radial deflection simulations the
longitudinal contact pressure distributions for each tire were analyzed (Fig. 6). Rely
on those curves, the relationship between deflection and pressure for wheels with
high vertical stiffness and small area of tread and road contact are visible—the
maximum pressure value are observed at the center of this areas, thus directly under
the force loading direction. Such phenomenon but more uniform is common to
300 M. Kucewicz et al.

traditional pneumatic tires [17]. On the other hand, in Bridgestone and Tweel
conceptions, where the deformation of tread is larger the maximum contact pressure
occurs near the place where tread lost the contact with ground.

6 Summary

The authors presented numerical modeling and simulations of three selected

non-pneumatic tire conceptions available on the market which were compared with
the tire structure proposed by the authors. Results of radial deflection test was
presented. Such quantities as force versus displacement, contact pressure and stress
distribution were analyzed and compared. During numerical investigations it was
proved that each tire due to different internal structure geometry has given different
radial load transfer and stress distribution, despite the fact of the same mass in all
four conceptions.
It have to be stated that presented investigations are only a first step of wider
study pointed on the development of a new airless tire. The authors wanted to
present the possibility of testing several solutions using numerical methods.
However, it is known and undeniable that a prototype of a tire needs to be
developed and tested. Only when a coupling between FEA and experiments is
carried out satisfactory results can be achieved.
The paper describes the part of a project that assumes to developed and test the
KucWheel tire idea in actual loading conditions.

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