Thermodynamics modeling of a novel nonpneumatic mechanical elastic wheel for predicting its mechanical–thermal behavior

AbstractAn advanced thermodynamics model based on brush-type tire model was developed here to investigate the mechanical–thermal behavior of a novel nonpneumatic mechanical elastic wheel (ME-wheel), operating under rolling conditions. Herein, first, we proposed a novel brush-type tire physical model wherein the factors of realistic tire deformable and frictional behavior were introduced. Next, the heat generation and dissipation mechanism of ME-wheel was investigated to develop its thermal model. By combining the brush-type tire physical model and thermal model through the factors involving tire deformable energy loss and frictional power loss, we established this thermodynamics model to predict the temperature-dependent mechanical characteristics and corresponding thermal behavior of ME-wheel under rolling operating conditions. It is found that the computation results agree well with the obtained experimental data (tire static and dynamics testing), which demonstrated the capability of this model in prec...