Research on Aerodynamic Characteristics of Isolated Non-pneumatic Mechanical Elastic Wheels

Abstract Non-pneumatic wheels inherently offer explosion-proof advantages compared to pneumatic wheel. Our team innovatively proposed an “elastic ring-hinge group” type non-pneumatic mechanical elastic wheel (ME-Wheel). To analyze the gas flow characteristics around the ME-Wheel, this study analyzed the aerodynamic characteristics of the ME-Wheel for the first time by using CFD calculation method, and studied the influences of speed, steering angle, camber angle and hinge group on the aerodynamic characteristics of the wheel. Compared with camber angle, steering angle has a more significant effect on the aerodynamic characteristics of non-pneumatic mechanical elastic wheels in terms of lift and drag. Speed has no significant effect on the wheel drag coefficient and lift coefficient. The number of hinge groups has a significant effect on wheel aerodynamic characteristics. The deviations between the maximum and minimum values of drag, lift, drag coefficient, and lift coefficient are 6.06%, 8.57%, 6.05%, and 8.6%, respectively. This study addresses a critical gap in the design optimization of ME-Wheel, provides a theoretical basis for the aerodynamic optimization of ME-Wheel, and has strong practical significance for the commercial development of non-pneumatic mechanical elastic wheels.