Abstract

Modern pneumatic tires (PT) are the results of enormous progress in science, technology, and manufacturing process. However, they are still subjected to adverse problems that could compromise the road safety and lead to accidents of different severities. The source of hazard in PT is mainly due to their dependence on air. Therefore, by introducing the concept of non-pneumatic tires (NPT) such limitations can be avoided. Recently, the literature was enriched by several research works intended to develop NPT utilizing spokes as deformable members to produce a similar ride comfort as with the conventional PT. However, most of these designs suffered from disturbing issues that prevented them from being widely marketed. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to develop a new model of NPT that would eliminate the hazards of conventional tires, and at the same time, be competitive with the few models of NPT already proposed by some tires companies. The proposed concept, based on the elastic sidewall, has gone through many stages of modifications until a final geometry-material combination was obtained. The tire was manufactured using fiber glass composites and tested statically (off-road) and dynamically (on-road). The preliminary results were very promising as for a proof of concept.