Investigation of tyre rim protectors on the aerodynamics of a passenger vehicle

Journal article, 2024

The wheels of a passenger vehicle contribute to a significant part of the vehicle’s aerodynamic drag. The previous research has shown that the flow is sensitive to small geometrical variations of the tyre, such as its shoulder profile and tread pattern. This work investigates the effect of altering the tyre profile in the transition region between the tyre and the rim by adding a so-called rim protector. Full-scale wind tunnel tests capturing forces, flow fields and surface pressures were conducted for three tyre variants in combination with two rim configurations on a crossover SUV. With a low rim protector, the forces and flow fields were similar to the reference tyre without a rim protector for both rims. With a wide, protruding, rim protector on the open rim, a larger and more outwashed front wheel wake was obtained with differences in the vortex structures, resulting in a drag penalty of 0.017 CD. The altered front wheel wake reduced the shielding of the rear wheel, resulting in differences in the rear wheel wake and base pressure. With a closed rim, the differences with the wide rim protector were much smaller with only a slight drag increase compared to the reference, demonstrating that there can be a strong interaction between the tyre and rim design.