Airless Tires are Apparently Coming?

"Enginerrrrrrrrr" (Enginerrrrrrrrr) 07/19/2015 at 13:09 • Filed to: None

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Anyone seen this yet? Hankook is really pushing for passenger vehicles. Their testing sounds like they are well on their way to getting them ready for the real world.

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Also, yeah I just read michelin and polaris have airless tires, but they aren’t for passenger vehicles.

Steve in Manhattan > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:12

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Did they finally make a tire that’s Clarkson proof?

Nibby > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:14

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http://tinyurl.com/rsfinally

Nisman > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:21

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No no no no no no...

Tina Corbett > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:39

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There would be great for First Responders and such. I saw a lot of flat and shredded tires out in the midwest after a natural disaster. When a tornado rolls through or a hurricane..there’s a lot of debris and nails on the roads.

Rainbow > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:42

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Michelin (or was it Bridgestone?) had some on a golf cart at the Petit Le Mans a couple years back. The only problem I see with them for consumer vehicles is that the rubber spokes kind of stretch at the top, letting the tread remain nearly completely circular and reducing the contact patch by a lot. They need to be made to be able to compress but unable to expand.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:44

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Im curious as to how these will translate over weight-wise. And it really bugs me they always show the wheels open with their exposed honeycomb internals. You know that wouldn’t fly to regular wheels especially when they’d get full of water/dirt/small animals.

Lekker > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 13:50

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They have been many many years in the making, but the lack of a consistent contact patch and probably not handling nearly as well just makes them unsafe - or did. I don’t know what all they’ve advanced on now. They even had them for military purposes, etc.

ClassicDatsunDebate > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 14:23

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This is an answer to a question that nobody is asking.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Rainbow 07/19/2015 at 14:54

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Michelin does have some and many others, including NASA, I see a Bridgestone here too. Good for trucks, they might have to be better for cars.

Bluecold > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 15:56

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They are inherently less efficient. Each spoke undergoes a compressive cycle each revolution. In contrast to an air pocket which stays compressed. Each cycle, a bit of energy gets lost in compressing the spokes. There are a lot of spokes, and a lot of revolutions for a car. The same goes for the sidewall and tread of a tire, however both tires have a tread and the sidewall needs to take up less weight than the air pocket.

Therefore, airless tires are inherently suckier than pneumatic tires. Every advancement for the airless tire also makes a better sidewall for the inflatable tire, keeping the performance gap intact, and keeping the airless tire from widespread adoption.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Lekker 07/19/2015 at 21:44

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Why isn’t there a consistent contact patch? Just because the little ribs don’t transfer the load completely evenly?

Enginerrrrrrrrr > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) 07/19/2015 at 21:46

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Yeah the military likes them for obvious reasons, but this is the first I’ve heard of them being fairly close for public vehicles.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Rainbow 07/19/2015 at 21:46

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Yeah it doesn’t seem like the golf carts have enough weight to compress them at all.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 07/19/2015 at 21:49

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true, but I bet it doesn’t much matter. The military has been using them for some time and I feel they would have mentioned that. Plus structurally the riblets wouldn’t be able to expand in the opposite direction well if they had to push on side walls when they contract...

Enginerrrrrrrrr > ClassicDatsunDebate 07/19/2015 at 21:50

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“How do we make a tire that can resist a blowout without making it a run-flat?”

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Nisman 07/19/2015 at 21:51

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I see your point.

But why no?

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Steve in Manhattan 07/19/2015 at 21:51

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Haha I bet he would find a way.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Bluecold 07/19/2015 at 21:55

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“the sidewall needs to take up less weight than the air pocket”

I’m not sure that’s what you meant to say haha.

I’m with you on it being less efficient, heck even the drag from air would increase much more, but that’s not really the point of them. And heck, you never know if one day they will be more efficient from some physics-bending tech. It is nice that the tech advances from these are increasing the efficiency of the typical tires we use now. I’m all for that.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 22:48

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cool, and a functional purpose but i see them like this for now

2 years away.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 07/19/2015 at 22:59

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you may be right ;)

Steve in Manhattan > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/19/2015 at 23:52

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You’re probably right - even solid tires would turn into racing slicks with enough wear. And for my British friends - we’re talking about TYRES.

Steve in Manhattan > ClassicDatsunDebate 07/19/2015 at 23:55

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Like a Dyson vacuum cleaner - ‘solves’ a problem that didn’t exist (turning). But I lost that battle, and the SigOther got her way. And it’s a very good vacuum, but I can’t say that out loud. At least we bought a reconditioned one and didn’t waste $50o on a new one. Pick your battles, I say.

ClassicDatsunDebate > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/20/2015 at 00:13

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So why not tank treads? :) There’s always a Yin to a Yang. This idea has so many negatives compared to a pneumatic tire for normal vehicle applications. In fact, it doesn’t act like a tire at all...it’s basically an elastomeric wheel, which has completely different physics (a’la the discussion on contact patch).

It’s a neat exercise but inflated tires and a wheel is just a better solution.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > ClassicDatsunDebate 07/20/2015 at 01:18

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I agree actually. For the everyday person, it really doesn’t make sense. Seems better for military applications or anything else where a puncture is more common.

Also treads aren’t always a bad idea ;)

Sneaky Pete > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/20/2015 at 01:51

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These have been in development since before I was an engineering student...nearly 10 years ago. From what I remember, the biggest factor keeping this style of wheel from going mainstream was road noise.

Bluecold > Enginerrrrrrrrr 07/20/2015 at 04:54

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A portion of the weight of the car is supported by the sidewall, which is subject to flexing losses, and a bigger portion of the weight of the car is supported by the air in the tire, which is not subject to flexing losses.

I don’t know the actual ratios and they change for differing tire widths and heights. For wider tires, the sidewall takes up more of the car weight, which is why ultra-low rolling resistance tires are much narrower.

Enginerrrrrrrrr > Bluecold 07/20/2015 at 11:37

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Ah I see what you are saying now. It sounded like the sidewall itself needed to weigh less than the air pockets for moment of inertia reasons and I was perplexed.