Cast Wheel Hub with Reinforcing Skeleton for Weight Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wheel hubs for commercial vehicles face challenges of high weight due to massive designs, which compromise strength and hinder heat dissipation, leading to overheating issues in wheel bearings.
Innovation Solution
A wheel hub design featuring an outer extension section with an inner sleeve and a coaxially arranged reinforcing skeleton, which surrounds the inner sleeve, allowing for thin walls while maintaining structural integrity and enhancing heat dissipation through a conical profile and channel formation for air flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If a massive design is used to ensure high strength, then the wheel hub has sufficient strength, but the weight increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel hub is divided into multiple functional sections: an outer extension section, a neck section, a brake disc section, and an inner sleeve section. This segmentation allows each part to be optimized independently for its specific function, enabling weight reduction while maintaining overall strength through strategic material distribution and structural design of individual segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The wheel hub employs a composite structure combining an inner sleeve with a reinforcing skeleton that integrates ribs and integrally formed portions. This composite design creates a lightweight yet strong configuration where the skeleton provides structural support and the inner sleeve contains bearing receptacles, achieving high strength-to-weight ratio through material and structural composition.
2Weight of moving object
If a closed and compact design is used to reduce weight, then the weight decreases, but heat dissipation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel hub incorporates a porous-like structure with multiple channels formed between the ribs of the reinforcing skeleton and the outer surface of the inner sleeve. These channels create pathways for air flow that facilitate heat dissipation from the wheel bearings and brake disc, while the overall compact design maintains reduced weight. The channel network acts as a thermal management system without requiring massive construction.
3Weight of moving object
If thin walls are used to reduce weight, then the weight decreases, but the structural integrity and strength are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The reinforcing skeleton extends in the radial dimension with ribs that project outward from the inner sleeve, creating a three-dimensional load-bearing structure. This radial extension provides structural reinforcement and stiffness without increasing the axial or tangential dimensions, allowing thin-walled construction while maintaining strength through spatial distribution of reinforcing elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The reinforcing skeleton features curved, conical-profile ribs that provide structural reinforcement. The curved geometry of the ribs distributes stresses more effectively than straight elements, enhancing the structural integrity of thin-walled sections. The conical shape of the skeleton tapers radially, optimizing strength distribution while minimizing material usage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves reduced weight without sacrificing strength and improves heat dissipation, preventing overheating of wheel bearings even under high loads, making it suitable for commercial vehicles.
Implementation Method 1
the channels formed between the ribs and the outer surface of the inner sleeve, said channels allowing good air flow and thus serving for heat dissipation
Data Source
AI summary
An wheel hub made from cast material, in particular for commercial vehicles, comprising a wheel hub body, wherein the wheel hub body consists of the axially successive sections of an outer extension section, a neck section and preferably a brake disc section, further comprising a wheel flange, wherein the wheel flange is formed integrally on the wheel hub body, preferably in the region between the outer extension section and the neck section, and a through hole, wherein the through hole extends axially through the entire wheel hub body, wherein the outer extension section has an inner sleeve and a reinforcing skeleton, wherein the reinforcing skeleton and the inner sleeve are arranged coaxially, and the reinforcing skeleton surrounds the inner sleeve.