Mechanical characteristics of airless tyre by laboratory testing

This paper aimed to study the mechanical characteristics of non-pneumatic tyre (NPT) or airless tyre upon usage and testing. The NPT was recently invented to replace traditional pneumatic tyre subjected to specific applications while eliminate the risk of flatten while using or periodically air pressure maintenance. For that purpose, the NPT must exhibit desired tyre characteristics such as load carrying capacity, vertical stiffness, contact pressure, and rolling. The tyre mechanical characteristics can be observed by mean of experimental tests in laboratory. In this article, the commercial NPT Tweel by Michelin was tested using vertical tyre testing machine and drum testing machine. The vertical stiffness and footprint were obtained from tyre testing machine, which the latter was obtained using the pressure measurement film. The results were then observed and discussed. The vertical stiffness of tested NPT was compared with the estimated value of traditional pneumatic tyre, in which the same size and appropriate inflation pressure were used. The rolling characteristic of NPT was observed from drum testing machine. The rolling resistance at various load and rolling speeds and was recorded. In addition, the high speed video camera was set up to capture NPT spoke deformation during rolling, while the image processing technique was used to collect the coordinate of spoke position at various time. The results were discussed and can be useful in development of NPT tyre in the near future.