A Study of the Strength of Spoked Wheels (The 3rd Report)

Abstract

A theoretical study of the stress in a spoked wheel produced by horizontal load was made in the second report by one of the writers. In succesion to this study, they made the following studies. (a) Experimental studies of the stress, by making use of a set of axle and spoked wheels which has suitable dimensions for the comparison of calculated and experimental values of stress. (b) The comparison between the calculated and experimental results of stress in the spoked wheel caused by a horizontal load. In this study, the calculation of the stress is made applying the theoretical equations and numerical results in the second report. (c) Experimental and theoretical studies of the axle deflection and the change of back-gauge when the horizontal load acts on the spoked wheel axle. As the results of these studies the following conclusions can be reached. (1) Experimental values of stresses in spokes under the horizontal load accord with the calculated values. With this fact, it is clear that previously made theoretical study of this problem is correct. (2) Experimental values of the axle deflection and the change of back-gauge accord with the calculated values approximately. But we have no objection to using the calculated values, that is, we can find the horizontal load by means of measuring the change of back-gauge.