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PROJECT DETAILS

Project Type
Emerging Investigators Program
Project Dates
04/01/2015 - 03/31/2016
Principal Investigators
Project Status
Complete

Tires are the only element connecting the vehicle to the ground, transmitting the torques from the engine and carrying the loads of the vehicle. Recent development in automotive, defense and aerospace industries require tires to have superior combination of low energy loss, light weight, low contact pressure, balanced dampimg and stiffness, high durability and easy maintenance. Non-Pneumatic Tires (NPTs) [1,2], also called airless tires, have recently emerged as an alternative of traditional pneumatic tires. The research objective of this proposal is to develop a transformative computational design methodology for innovative high performance robust and reliable multifunctional NPTs by integrating computational topology optimization methodology with advanced predictive physics models, mathematical programming, and additive technology.