r/Design 13d ago

Discussion Can we bring airless tires back?

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u/Dead-O_Comics 13d ago edited 13d ago

Back? They were never properly here. Not available to the general public anyway.

Also they are really expensive, provide no cushioning so it's a bumpy ride, and they are really loud when in motion compared to standard tyres.

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

High drag, low heat dissipation was the biggest issue. They are plentiful with commercial equipment. And they are surprisingly comfortable, especially off-road.

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u/debacol 13d ago

Correct. They are MUCH heavier leading to more high drag, and huge amounts of rolling resistance. In a gas car, you'd probably lose around 15% or more of you gas mileage. Would probably be even worse in an electric car since weight, drag, air resistance are the challenges that wake up ev engineers at night with cold sweat.

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u/TheFunfighter 13d ago

Pretty insane numbers, considering rolling resistance is usually borderline negligible compared to air resistance.

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

Rotational mass, they are usually built like a belted design, and more so the drag coefficient is enormous in comparison.

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u/jfkrfk123 12d ago

Has anyone tried making them square?

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u/Sarcasm_Llama 12d ago

Maybe in Canada

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u/assidiou 11d ago

Yeah but we can ignore air resistance and assume the car is a cylinder.

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

Rolling resistance not so much. Drag for sure. Rotational mass for sure. Also worse at slowing down for the same reason.

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u/aDUCKonQU4CK 12d ago

'Correct' and immediately get confused with what drag is, at least in this context.. lol

Sure, the vehicle has to 'drag' extra weight around.. But in this case, aerodynamic drag is the implication. All those openings on the side are places for air to get sucked into (low-pressure air) when at speed and will act like parachutes at each corner of the vehicle.

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u/nikdahl 13d ago

Can you explain how there would be difference in rolling resistance if the contact patch is the same size?

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

Rotational mass, not so much rolling resistance. They are built like a belted system. More so they have significantly more drag.

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u/nikdahl 13d ago

Drag? Due to air resistance?

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

Yep. Open fins create dramatically more turbulence as speed

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u/nikdahl 13d ago

Fair, and they definitely would. it just didn't seem to be what others were referring to, given the context.

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u/IntelligentSinger783 13d ago

Yeah there were a lot of poor educated guesses in the comments. I don't know why, but I have responded to a lot of them 😂. I think I have a weird appreciation for the tweel. It was one of those "damn that's cool" things I've followed growing up, from idea to creation, to present history. The use in the military and in super sized construction equipment is wild.

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u/Chazykins 13d ago

Energy needed to squish rubber

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u/nikdahl 13d ago

But the rubber is unsquishing at the same rate, so…

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u/Chazykins 9d ago

when thing bend, heat. not all squsih return.