Original title and source: Bridgestone Sucks the Air Out of its Tires In effect, the 'radial springs' of the Bridgestone tire are engineered for specific spring constant and hysteresis. In contrast, air inflated tires have a balloon structure that depends upon the spring and hysteresis of the sidewall and tread belt. Inflated tires have fewer engineering options to optimize stiffness needed for turns, a lateral impulse, because the tires also have to deal with bumps and object, a radial impulse load. I'm looking forward to the Bridgestone results. Bob Wilson
Michelin has been studying airless tires for years... Fast Cool Cars - Airless tires - The Tweel - Michelin
and for those of us who are NOTengineers: Definition of HYSTERESIS (Websters): a retardation of an effect when the forces acting upon a body are changed (as if from viscosity or internal friction); especially : a lagging in the values of resulting magnetization in a magnetic material (as iron) due to a changing magnetizing force. Wikipedia: Hysteresis is the dependence of the output of a system not only on its current input, but also on its history of past inputs. The dependence arises because the history affects the value of an internal state.
I imagine when these airless tires finally make it to the mass market they will have a simple rubber covering for that. This could also solve a problem with the Tweel was initially reported. These are noisier than current tires. Some of the noise could be in the spokes flexing, but their required shape may also cause air turbulence and thus noise.
Remember, this is a developing technology close to this stage of aviation technology: Testing is what will lead to product. Bob Wilson
Hmm, looks interesting. They're probably going to cost a lot more than the regular tires though, since these probably won't need to get replaced as often. Still, at least they're trying new things.
Skid loaders and other types of construction equipment have been using airless tires for some time... and polaris even sold an off road ATV with airless tires Polaris' latest ATV has airless tires that can withstand .50-caliber rounds | The Verge
I'd be very interested in test results while under more intense performance, handling reviews, etc. For instance, how do they react during an evasive maneuver, or even just hitting a bump while going around a curve at speed. I'd also like to know temperature-range and aging effects. All of these are existing considerations for standard tires. These have been under development for years, which may be an indication of either unresolvable design issues or economic hurdles.
Naive owner: I broke a spoke. Can I just replace it ? PriusChat: NO NO NO. Disassemble the wheel and balance all the spokes, then reassemble as a fractal.
