Design & Static Analysis of a Non-Pneumatic Tyre with Non-Uniform Distance Between the Honeycomb Spokes

A non-pneumatic tyre (hereby referred to as “NPT”) is a tyre that is not supported by any internal air pressure. Hence, they tend to be more reliable than a conventional tyre supported by compressed air. They have a wide range of advantages mainly due to their run-flat properties and low rolling resistance. While pneumatic tyres are still preferred, it has displayed some disadvantages such as the necessity to maintain interior air pressure and the possibility to burst while driving. Recently, non-pneumatic tyres have been developed in the hope that they may replace conventional tyres one day. However, most of the research conducted is mainly based on spokes with a uniform degree. In this paper, we discuss the behaviour of a non-pneumatic tyre with a varying degree of honeycombed structured spokes. The density of spokes will decrease when approaching the surface of the tyre which is on contact with the road, and increases when approaching the centre hub of the wheel. The new design was modelled on Autodesk Inventor and analysed on Ansys Workbench to obtain results similar to what we expected. By altering the distance and shape between the spokes, it has displayed significant improvement over existing NPT’s showing less stress and deformation in the wheel.