Provided is a power generation system capable of efficiently converting wind power into electric power. The power generation system comprises: a pneumatic tire; a wheel on which the pneumatic tire is mounted; and at least one generator wind turbine attached, in a cavity defined by the pneumatic tire and the wheel, to the pneumatic tire and/or the wheel.

A method of modeling a tire includes providing a tire having a first tire design, rotating the tire under a vertical load, and measuring a plurality of forces at a plurality of selected conditions. The method further includes using a computer to plot the plurality of forces against the plurality of conditions, using the computer to plot a plurality of moments against the plurality of conditions, and using the computer to fit a first force curve to the plurality of plotted forces at the plurality of conditions, such that the first force curve is asymmetric. The method also includes using the computer to fit a first moment curve to the plurality of plotted moments at the plurality of conditions, evaluating the first force curve and the first moment curve, and making a second tire design based on the evaluation of the first force curve and the first moment curve.

The invention provides an autoclave capable of creating a uniform temperature distribution inside a pressurized chamber and a method for manufacturing tires using the autoclave. The autoclave shaped as a cylindrical pressurized chamber has a heat source and a fan disposed on one end side thereof and ducts extending lengthwise on the inner peripheral wall surface thereof to discharge air blown by the fan to the other end side thereof. And the air outlets of the ducts are so designed as to discharge the air blown by the fan in a circumferential direction of the pressurized chamber.

The invention provides an autoclave capable of creating a uniform temperature distribution inside a pressurized chamber and a method for manufacturing tires using the autoclave. The autoclave shaped as a cylindrical pressurized chamber has a heat source and a fan disposed on one end side thereof and ducts extending lengthwise on the inner peripheral wall surface thereof to discharge air blown by the fan to the other end side thereof. And the air outlets of the ducts are so designed as to discharge the air blown by the fan in a circumferential direction of the pressurized chamber.

A standardization system for the manufacture of tires is provided. The same size tire components can be used in the summit of tires having different sizes i.e., tires having different section widths, sidewall heights, and/or aspect ratios. A matrix of tire sizes can be associated with one or more tire summit parameters. The matrix can be used for the manufacture of tires having one or more standardized components by holding substantially constant the value of one or more tire summit parameters across a diagonal of the matrix.

Electrical connector assemblies mountable on a tire of a wheel of a vehicle are described. An electrical connector assembly may include one or more electrical conductors, a respective electrical conductor extending from an inside surface of the tire to an outside surface of the tire. Tire assemblies including at least partially embedded electrical connector assemblies and wheel assemblies including such tire assemblies are also described.

A simulation method of exterior noise generated by a rolling tyre, in particular Pass-By Noise (PBN), which method comprises the following steps: (iv) providing a FEM structural model of a rolling tyre including modelled pattern features, wherein an instant position of each node is calculated; (v) providing the tyre structural model as input to a mapping procedure which outputs a tyre acoustic model, which procedure comprises the following sub-steps: (iia) for each target node of the acoustic mesh, a number of closest input nodes of the input structural mesh are selected; (iib) a value of a vibration variable for the target node is calculated starting from the values of such variable of the closest input nodes; (iic) for each target note a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is calculated to obtain the vibration variables in frequency domain; (vi) calculating the sound pressure field generated by the tyre based upon the tyre acoustic model.

A tire deterioration state prediction method for predicting, by a computer, the deterioration state of a tire using a tire model configured from multiple elements comprises an information acquisition step for acquiring information relating to a use environment, which includes the pressure history and the temperature history in an air chamber during tire use, and the history of load acting on the tire, and information relating to the tire characteristics, including the material characteristics of members configuring the tire; a temperature history calculation step for calculating, for each element, the temperature history of the tire on the basis of the information acquired in the information acquisition step; an oxygen concentration history calculation step for calculating, for each element, the oxygen concentration history on the basis of the information and the temperature history of each element; and a tire deterioration state evaluation step for evaluating the deterioration state of the tire on the basis of the oxygen concentration history of each element.

A vehicle includes a powerplant, such as an engine, configured to power front and rear wheels, and a controller. The controller is programmed to, brake a first of the front wheels and a first of the rear wheels while powering a second of the front wheels and a second of the rear wheels to warm those tires, and subsequently brake the second front wheel and the second rear wheel while powering the first front wheel and the first rear wheel to warm those tires.

A tire testing apparatus of drum type includes a drum having, on a circumferential outer surface thereof, a sensor for measuring a ground contact force of a tire and a transparent portion; an image capturing device for capturing, from inside of the drum and through the transparent portion, an image of the ground contact surface of a tire; a ground contact force measurement processing unit which measures a ground contact force of a tire in planner contact with the sensor; a ground contact surface image capture processing unit which captures an image of the ground contact surface by the image capturing device when the tire comes into planner contact with the transparent portion; and a slip amount calculation unit which calculates a slip amount based on a displacement of a corresponding location which corresponds to a ground contact surface of the tire for which a measurement is made.