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The International Conference on Materials Research and Innovation (ICMARI) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 773 (2020) 012037 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/773/1/012037

Mechanical characteristics of airless tyre by laboratory testing

R Rugsaj1,2, and C Suvanjumrat1,2,*

1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,

Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.
2 Laboratory of Computer Mechanics for Design (LCMD),
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakhon Pathom, 73170, Thailand.

*Corresponding author: chakrit.suv@mahidol.ac.th.

Abstract. 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.

1. Introduction
The tyres are an important component of the vehicle. However, the conventional pneumatic tyres have
several disadvantages since the tyre possesses the risk to undergo severed damage or flatted if the tyre
traversing across various types of critical obstacles [1]. The non-pneumatic tyre (NPT) or airless tyre
was recently developed to overcome these disadvantages. The NPT was designed to exhibit desired
characteristics of the pneumatic tyres without requirement of the inflation pressure [2]. The first
available commercial NPT is TWEEL developed by Michelin. The Tweel consists of two main
components which are 1) circular shear beam and tread 2) elastic spokes which connected to a hub. The
NPT can be designed to have required vertical stiffness and contact pressure upon spoke geometry and
material without limit to size and pressure, unlike traditional pneumatic tyre. The NPT’s lateral stiffness
which affects handling and cornering can also be independently optimized with vertical stiffness which
affects the riding comfort [3]. The pneumatic tyres are required to exhibit some performance parameters
to meet desired characteristic. To name a few, the interested tyre parameters are including load carrying
capacity, vertical stiffness, contact pressure, and rolling resistance. Design of NPT is needed to match
the pneumatic tyre performances, which emphasised on mechanical behaviour and characteristics, such

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The International Conference on Materials Research and Innovation (ICMARI) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 773 (2020) 012037 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/773/1/012037

as load carrying capacity, vertical stiffness, contact pressure, and rolling resistance [4]. In order to
achieve those objectives, the in-depth study and discussion regards testing and analysis on NPT
performances is still required. The tyre mechanical characteristics can be observed by mean of
experimental tests in laboratory. This paper aimed to study the mechanical characteristics of non-
pneumatic tyre (NPT) or airless tyre upon usage and testing. The commercial NPT Tweel developed by
Michelin was tested using vertical tyre testing machine and drum testing machine. The results were
discussed and can be useful in development of NPT tyre in the near future.

2. Experimental
The commercial NPT Tweel 12N16.5 SSL ALL TERRAIN airless radial tyre developed by Michelin
(Fig. 1) is selected to study the mechanical behaviour and characteristic of NPT. The vertical stiffness
of NPT is tested by tyre testing machine Ektron PL-2003 as shown in Fig. 2 (a). The footprint is also
collected using the same machine and the pressure measurement films, Prescale LLLW PS 270x220 5S-
E, as shown in Fig. 2 (b). The NPT was then tested at 5 positions along the circumference, the results
were then averaged. The vertical load of 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 kN were used to test the vertical stiffness
of NPT along with the footprint. The drum testing machine, Kayton DTM-350MS, developed by Kayton
Industry Co., Ltd. (Fig. 3 (a)) is used to test rolling characteristic and rolling resistance of NPT. In
addition, the high-speed video camera is set up to capture the deformation of spokes while the NPT is
rolling (Fig. 3 (b)). The NPT was rotated at various speed including of 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 km/h while
the load was fixed at 14 kN. On other testing condition, the load was varied at 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 kN
while the speed was fixed at 11 km/h. The rolling resistance value and spoke deformation behaviour of
rolling tyre were collected.

Figure 1. NPT Tweel 12N16.5 SSL ALL TERRAIN model by Michelin.

(a) (b)
Figure 2. (a) Tyre testing machine Ektron PL-2003 (b) The mounting of NPT onto the tyre testing
machine.

2
The International Conference on Materials Research and Innovation (ICMARI) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 773 (2020) 012037 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/773/1/012037

(a) (b)
Figure 3. (a) The drum testing machine Kayton DTM-350MS developed by Kayton Industry Co., Ltd.
(b) The instalment of the high-speed video camera onto drum testing machine.

3. Results and discussion

The force-displacement relationships obtain from vertical stiffness testing results at different loads is
shown in Fig 4. The vertical stiffness of NPT could be calculated from using force-displacement
relationship is equal to 869.93 N/mm. The expected vertical stiffness value of pneumatic tyre can be
evaluated using simplified Rhyne’s equation [1] as expressed by Eq. 1:

K z = 0.00028P W  OD + 3.45 (1)

where Kz is vertical stiffness, P is inflation pressure, W is tread or footprint width and OD is overall
diameter. The vertical stiffness of NPT is compared to vertical stiffness of pneumatic tyre, which is
calculated using Eq. 1 based on the same overall dimension under a range of inflation pressure as shown
in Fig. 4 (b). From the results, it could be seen that NPT have higher vertical stiffness than conventional
pneumatic tyre. The rolling resistance coefficient at various testing speed and load is shown in Fig. 5 (a)
and Fig. 5 (b), respectively. In addition, the deformation of spoke at various position from the hub centre
is digitized by image processing as shown in Fig. 6 (a) according to rolling angle positions as shown by
schematic diagram in Fig. 6 (b). It should be noted that the spoke deformation are found to be in tension
and compression at the upper and lower parts of the spoke structure, respectively. The testing results
could explain the function of spokes to distribute the load along all portion of spoke. Therefore every
spokes are deform, not just only the lower portion of spoke, which is directly in contact with the ground.

(a) (b)
Figure 4. (a) The force-displacement relationships of NPT obtained from vertical stiffness testing
(b) The mounting of NPT onto the tyre testing machine.

3
The International Conference on Materials Research and Innovation (ICMARI) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 773 (2020) 012037 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/773/1/012037

(a) (b)
Figure 5. Rolling resistance coefficient (a) at various test speed (b) at various test load.

(a) (b)
Figure 6. (a) The spoke deformation (b) Schematic diagram of angular recording position.

4. Conclusions
In this research, the mechanical characteristics of NPT or airless tyre were studied using the tyre testing
machines. The force-displacement was obtained by a tyre testing machine. The vertical stiffness was
achieved at 869.93 N/mm. It can be concluded that NPT has higher vertical stiffness, which is directly
related to load carrying capacity, than conventional pneumatic tyre based on the same size. The rolling
resistance value and spoke deformation of rolling NPT on the drum testing machine were collected,
which the latter was recorded by a high speed camera. The spoke deformation are found to be in tension
and compression at the upper and lower parts of the spoke structure, respectively. This emphasised the
function of spokes to share the force distribution on all spokes. This knowledge is very useful in
designing the NPT structure in the near future. It can concluded that a good NPT design should exhibit
the function of spoke geometry to distribute the load on all portion of the spoke structure.

5. References
[1] Gent AN, Watler JD. The pneumatic tyre. Washington DC: National highway traffic safety
administration; 2006.
[2] Rhyne TB, Cron SM. Development of a Non-Pneumatic Wheel. Tyre Sci Technol 2006; 34(3):150-69.
[3] Gasmi A, Joseph PF, Rhyne TB, and Cron SM. Development of a two-dimensional model of a
compliant non-pneumatic tyre. Int J Solids Struct 2012; 49(13):1723-40..
[4] Jang IG, Sung YH, Yoo EJ, Kwak BM. Pattern design of a non-pneumatic tyre for stiffness using
topology optimization. Eng Optimiz 2012; 44(2):119-132

Acknowledgement
This work was financial supported by Rubber Technology Research Center (RTEC), Mahidol University
and the Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under the TRF Research Grant No. RDG60T0140.