Design and simulation of a new type of composite flexible-spoke non-pneumatic tire

This paper proposes a new type of composite flexible-spoke non-pneumatic tire structure to address issues such as easy fatigue failure, difficult maintenance and high replacement costs of the support bodies of conventional non-pneumatic tires. Firstly, a new composite flexible-spoke non-pneumatic tire model was established using ABAQUS software. Through finite element simulation analysis, the basic mechanical properties of this new type of tire were studied, as well as the sinking amount of non-pneumatic tires and the motion interference relationship between adjacent support elements under different double arcs section thicknesses. The results indicate that the larger the sinking amount of the new composite flexible-spoke non-pneumatic tire, the more likely it is for motion interference to occur between adjacent support units. To avoid motion interference, two improvement schemes were proposed on the basis of the original tire model, and the rationality of the improvement schemes was verified through finite element simulation. This research provides a new solution to reduce the usage cost of non-pneumatic tires and the scrap rate of the entire tire.