Y-Shaped Spoke Wheel Design for Weight and Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wheel designs face challenges in reducing weight while maintaining lateral stiffness and minimizing road noise by separating wheel natural frequencies from tire cavity resonance frequencies, often requiring additional components that increase material and production costs.
Innovation Solution
A wheel design featuring a Y-shaped spoke configuration with equiangularly spaced Y-shaped spokes, bolt holes positioned between the spokes, and optimized dimensions to achieve a reduced weight and increased lateral stiffness while separating natural frequency modes from the tire cavity resonance frequency range.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the wheel weight is reduced, then fuel economy and performance are improved, but the lateral stiffness of the wheel decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The wheel design divides the spoke structure into multiple Y-shaped spokes that extend from the hub to the rim. Each spoke is segmented into a trunk portion and two limb portions, creating a distributed structural network that provides lateral stiffness while using less material than a solid wheel design.
Solution Approach 2:
The spokes have a Y-shaped asymmetric configuration with a trunk portion and two diverging limb portions. This asymmetric geometry optimizes the distribution of structural material to provide lateral stiffness in critical directions while minimizing overall material usage and weight.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If additional components such as sound-absorbing material or resonators are added to suppress sound, then road noise performance is improved, but the production cost and wheel weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The design converts the potential harmful effect of acoustic cavity resonance into a beneficial outcome by carefully designing the spoke structure to create natural frequency modes that fall outside the tire cavity resonance frequency range. This passive frequency separation approach eliminates road noise without requiring additional sound-absorbing materials or active noise control systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The spoke design parameters (Y-shape geometry, limb portions, branch points) are optimized to control the natural frequency modes of the wheel. By adjusting these geometric parameters, the natural frequencies are positioned outside the problematic tire cavity resonance range, achieving noise suppression through parameter optimization rather than additional components.
3Strength
If the number of spokes or thickness of spokes is increased, then the lateral stiffness of the wheel is improved, but the wheel weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The Y-shaped spoke design concentrates material in locally critical areas (the trunk portions connecting to the hub and the limb portions connecting to the rim) while reducing material in less critical regions. This local quality optimization provides maximum lateral stiffness where needed while minimizing overall weight.
Data Source
AI summary
A wheel includes a rim having an outer radius, R1, extending from a center point of the wheel to an outer edge of the rim, and a hub having an outer radius, R2, extending from the center point of the wheel to an outer edge of the hub. The hub is positioned coaxially with the rim and has a plurality of circumferentially positioned and equiangularly spaced bolt holes for attachment of the wheel to the vehicle. The wheel further includes a plurality of equiangularly spaced, Y-shaped spokes having a trunk portion contacting the hub, two limb portions each contacting the rim, and a branch point at which the trunk portion and limb portions converge. The spokes extend radially outward from the hub to the rim. The bolt holes are interspaced between the trunk portions. A distance between the center point of the wheel and the branch point is D1.