Investigation on the characteristics of a Non-Pneumatic tire with different spoke shapes

Non-pneumatic tires have gained significant popularity as a result of their distinct qualities and advantages over pneumatic tires. In this paper, based on ABAQUS commercial software, four different spoke structures have been introduced and investigated under static loading. Two of which are honeycomb structures that have been thoroughly researched in literature, and the two others are compared to them and a pneumatic tire as well. To identify the best model, Three different design parameters of NPTs have been studied: vertical stiffness, local stress in spokes, and mass of the model. It is found that the load-carrying capacity of the NPT models presented in this paper is higher than the PT. The hexagonal honeycomb model with 48 units had an average vertical stiffness of 26.6 percent higher than the pneumatic tire, while the NPT-A1 model had an average vertical stiffness of 21.7 percent higher. However, the former had a relatively higher mass. Having outperformed the pneumatic tires in terms of vertical stiffness, NPTs can be considered a potential replacement to pneumatic tires.