A Calculational Aero-Acoustic Study of Spokes of an Isolated Nonpneumatic Tire

Abstract

ABSTRACT With the progress of noise control of engines and the rise of new energy vehicles, the severity of tire noise has been increasingly highlighted. Recently, the nonpneumatic tire (NPT) has drawn attention because of its novel structure design that surpasses traditional tires in anti-explosion, maintenance-free, and low rolling resistance characteristics. However, with an open-side structure and violent air impact at the flexible spokes, an NPT emits greater aerodynamic noise than a pneumatic tire during high-speed rolling, which results in an adverse effect on the riding comfort of vehicles. The arrangement pattern of flexible spokes in an NPT plays an important role in the generation of aerodynamic noise. In this study, the aerodynamic flow around NPTs, which were in contact with the ground, rolled at a speed of 80 km/h, and had different arrangement patterns of spokes, was investigated using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes method and Large-Eddy Simulation. Then, the far-field aerodynamic noise of different NPTs were calculated using Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings equations in the acoustic model of ANSYS-Fluent. The influence of spoke arrangements on the flow pattern and aerodynamic noise was analyzed. Based on the results, we propose an optimized design of spokes that can enhance the aero-acoustic performance of NPTs.