CN219154145U - Wheel and motor vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model provides a wheel and a motor vehicle. The wheel includes: a hub; a rim connected to the hub via a plurality of spokes spaced apart from one another to form a plurality of through spaces; and a plurality of baffles movably mounted to the wheel relative to the hub and configured to move relative to the hub in response to changes in vehicle speed to provide different degrees of shielding of respective ones of the plurality of through spaces.

Description

Wheel and motor vehicle

Technical Field

The present utility model relates to a wheel configured to be capable of adjusting air resistance according to a running speed, thereby improving aerodynamic performance, and a motor vehicle wheel.

Background

In general, vehicles have a streamlined profile in order to reduce air resistance, thereby improving aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. However, the air resistance acting on the vehicle includes not only the upper resistance depending on the outer shape of the vehicle but also the lower resistance generated by the wheel and the tire portion. Therefore, the air resistance of the wheel and tire portions also needs to be improved.

Since the motor vehicle is equipped with a brake, the rim is open (spaces between spokes) to allow air flow to cool the brake. At the same time, however, open rims increase air resistance, especially at high speeds, resulting in more fuel/power consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to control the coverage of the rim, and reduce the air resistance as much as possible during high-speed running; the air flow is increased as much as possible during low-speed driving or standstill, and heat is dissipated in time for the brake.

Disclosure of Invention

The present utility model has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems occurring in the related art. The present utility model aims to propose a variable aerodynamic wheel in which a shutter is applied between the spokes of the wheel, moving with respect to the hub, such that the shutter provides different degrees of shielding of the through space, thereby regulating the air resistance and balancing the contradiction between reducing the air resistance and the brake heat dissipation requirements, thus improving the running performance and the energy consumption performance as well as the fuel efficiency.

The present utility model provides a wheel comprising: a hub; a rim connected to the hub via a plurality of spokes spaced apart from one another to form a plurality of through spaces; and a plurality of baffles movably mounted to the wheel relative to the hub and configured to move relative to the hub in response to changes in vehicle speed to provide different degrees of shielding of respective ones of the plurality of through spaces.

Advantageously, the degree of shielding of the respective through-spaces of the plurality of through-spaces is based on the vehicle speed or the wheel speed.

Advantageously, the degree of shielding of the respective ones of the plurality of through spaces increases with increasing vehicle speed.

Advantageously, the shutter is moved relative to the hub by centrifugal forces generated by rotation of the wheels while the vehicle is travelling.

Advantageously, the hub further comprises a plurality of grooves provided on the hub, said plurality of baffles being movably mounted via respective projections into respective ones of the plurality of grooves so as to be able to move relative to the hub along a specific trajectory under the guidance of the grooves.

Advantageously, the trajectory of any one of the plurality of grooves is in the form of a logarithmic spiral having a start end and a stop end, the start end being closer to the origin and the stop end being further from the origin than the direction of the spiral of the logarithmic spiral.

Advantageously, a spring is provided in the groove, one end being connected to the projection of the shutter and the other end being connected to the terminating end.

Advantageously, in case the slip ratio of the vehicle is zero, the relation between the degree of shielding provided by the plurality of shutters and the running speed of the vehicle is determined based on the following formula:

wherein v is _flap Is the linear velocity of the baffle centroid configured to lie on the trajectory of the trough, R _w Is the radius of the wheel, ρ is the polar radius, v _car For the running speed of the vehicle, a is the polar radius of the starting end, alpha is the included angle between the tangent line of any point on the logarithmic spiral curve and the polar radius, m is the mass of a single baffle plate, K is the rigidity of a spring, θ represents the polar angle under the polar coordinate, the shielding degree is described, and the larger the θ is, the larger the shielding degree is.

Advantageously, a drive mechanism is also included, mounted to the hub and configured to drive the shield plate in a circumferential rotation relative to the hub as the vehicle travels.

Advantageously, the driving mechanism comprises: a motor disposed within the hub; a drive assembly coupled to the rotor of the motor and the plurality of baffles configured to cause rotation of the plurality of baffles when the rotor of the motor rotates.

Advantageously, the transmission assembly comprises: a sun gear connected to a rotor of the motor and configured to be rotatable with the rotor; a plurality of transmission gears disposed around the sun gear and connected to each other via a gear frame to be engaged with the sun gear; a ring gear disposed around the plurality of transmission gears, meshed with the plurality of transmission gears, and a plurality of shutters mounted to the ring gear so as to be rotatable together with the ring gear.

Advantageously, the motor is configured to cause the rotation angle of the shutter to vary with the running speed of the vehicle based on the following formula when the running speed of the vehicle is less than a predetermined threshold value: θ=k·v _car 。

Advantageously, the motor is configured to set the rotation angle of the shutter to completely cover a corresponding through space of the plurality of through spaces when the running speed of the vehicle is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value.

Advantageously, said predetermined threshold is 140km/h.

The present application also provides a motor vehicle comprising a wheel as described above.

Drawings

The advantages and objects of the present utility model will be better understood in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the utility model, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To better illustrate the relationship of the various components in the figures, the figures are not drawn to scale.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a wheel according to a first embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 2 shows a plan view of a hub according to a first embodiment of the present application with the baffles removed to show the grooves of the hub for mounting the baffles.

Fig. 3 shows a plan view of a baffle according to a first embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 4a-4c show state diagrams of baffles providing different degrees of shielding.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic view of the protrusion of the shutter in connection with the spring.

Fig. 6 shows a logarithmic spiral curve.

Figure 7 shows a diagram of the centroid position of the baffle (where the baffle's own weight is small and negligible).

Fig. 8 shows a graph of the degree of shielding against the running speed of the vehicle.

Fig. 9 shows an exploded view of the drive mechanism according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 10 shows a further exploded view of the drive mechanism according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 11 shows a schematic plan view of the transmission assembly.

Fig. 12 shows a schematic of powering a motor.

Detailed Description

Various embodiments according to the present utility model will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, it is to be noted that in the drawings, the same reference numerals are given to constituent parts having substantially the same or similar structures and functions, and repeated description thereof will be omitted. The term "comprising A, B, C, etc. in turn" merely indicates the order in which the included elements A, B, C, etc. are arranged, and does not exclude the possibility of including other elements between a and B and/or between B and C. In the following description, directional terminology may be used for convenience, and it is noted that the directions in which the disclosure appears are for convenience of description only, and the disclosure is not limited thereto, as various features may have different directions in different orientations.

The drawings in the present specification are schematic views, which assist in explaining the concept of the present utility model, and schematically show the shapes of the respective parts and their interrelationships.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a wheel of a first embodiment of the present application. The wheel comprises a hub 1, a rim 2 and a plurality of spokes 3 connected between the hub 1 and the rim 2. The hub 1 is connected to an axle of a vehicle, and corresponds to an "inner ring" of the wheel, and the rim corresponds to an "outer ring" of the wheel. The plurality of spokes 3 are arranged to be spaced apart from each other to define a plurality of through spaces 4 therebetween to allow air to pass therethrough. A plurality of baffles 5 are movably mounted to the wheel relative to the hub and are configured to move relative to the hub in response to changes in vehicle speed to provide different degrees of shielding of respective ones of the plurality of through spaces. In particular, the shield plate is moved relative to the hub by centrifugal force generated by rotation of the wheels while the vehicle is running.

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged view of the hub, as shown in fig. 2, the hub 1 comprising a plurality of grooves 11 provided on the hub, the protrusions 51 of the plurality of baffles 5 being movably provided in respective ones of the plurality of grooves 11. In this description, five grooves and five baffles are shown, but it should be understood by those skilled in the art that this is merely exemplary, and that a suitable number of grooves and baffles may be provided as desired.

Specifically, each of the plurality of shutters 5 has a projection 51, as shown in fig. 3, movably mounted into a corresponding one of the plurality of grooves 11 so as to move the plurality of shutters relative to the hub under the guidance of the groove.

Each of the plurality of grooves 11 is in the form of a logarithmic spiral having a start end 111 and a finish end 112, the start end being closer to the origin and the finish end being further from the origin than the spiral direction of the logarithmic spiral. The angle to which the log spiral curve corresponds depends on the number of baffles, that is, the log spiral curve is selected based on the number of baffles.

A spring 6 is provided in each groove 11, one end of which is connected to the protrusion 51 and the other end is connected to the terminating end, as shown in fig. 5, showing the connection of the protrusion 51 to the spring 6. The protrusion 51 is arranged in the groove so as to be clamped in the groove, and the spring also provides a supporting effect to the protrusion 51 and thus to the baffle, while the spring balances the component force in tangential direction of the centrifugal force generated when the component rotates.

During running of the vehicle, the degree of shielding of the penetrating space by the barrier 5 varies based on the running speed of the vehicle, and the relationship between the degree of shielding and the running speed is described in detail below.

Fig. 6 shows a mathematical model of a section of a logarithmic spiral curve for a groove 11, assuming that the groove corresponds to the section of the logarithmic spiral curve shown in fig. 6 from point a to point B, that is, point a corresponds to the start of the groove and point B corresponds to the end of the groove. Logarithmic spiral curves are characterized by the fact that the normal vector of the curve always has the same angle with the polar radius.

The polar coordinates are expressed by the following formula:

ρ＝a·e ^kθ (1)

the constant "a" is the polar radius of the point a (i.e. the starting end), the constant "k" is the cotangent of the angle between the polar radius and the tangential direction, i.e. k=cotα, and α is the angle between the tangential line of any point on the logarithmic spiral curve and the polar radius, the angle is unchanged for the logarithmic spiral curve, θ represents the polar angle, and represents the angle by which the line connecting the point in the polar coordinate and the origin makes a detour with respect to the polar axis, so that the movement of the baffle can be represented, and the greater θ, the greater the shielding degree of the baffle to the penetrating space. In this application, when the baffle moves 36 degrees, it will cover the through space completely, so θ is chosen to be 36 degrees at maximum, i.e., the angle between the polar radius of point a and the polar radius of point B is 36 degrees. Of course, the maximum value of θ depends on the number of through spaces and the number of baffles.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram drawn to calculate the relationship between the shielding degree and the running speed of the vehicle. As the vehicle starts to run, the shutter 5 moves along the groove 11 relative to the hub due to the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the wheel, compressing the spring 6 by a distance Δx. In the state shown in fig. 7, assuming that the baffle 5 is in a steady state, the component force of the centrifugal force applied to the protrusion 51 in the tangential direction of the rotation locus is equal to the compression force of the spring, and based on the principle, the following three formulas (2) to (4) can obtain the relational expression (5) of θ and the linear velocity of the baffle centroid.

F _k ＝KΔx＝F _N cotα (3)

Wherein v is _flap Is the linear velocity of the mass center of the baffle plate, the mass center is arranged on the track of the groove, a is the polar radius of the initial end, alpha is the included angle between the tangent line of any point on the logarithmic spiral curve and the polar radius, m is the mass of the single baffle plate (the mass of the baffle plate is smaller, so that the mass center of the baffle plate is positioned at the moving track, and the baffle plate can be equivalently regarded as movingMoving mass point on the trajectory), K is the spring rate of the spring, θ represents the polar angle at polar coordinates, F _K F is the force exerted on the shutter when the spring is compressed _N The acting force of the groove on the baffle is in the normal direction of the track of the groove.

The above description is mainly directed to the case where the slip ratio of the vehicle is zero, that is, the case where the wheels are not slipped. The running speed of the vehicle has a corresponding conversion relationship with the wheel rotation speed during normal running of the vehicle, which is well known to those skilled in the art.

Next, the following equation (6) describing the traveling speed of the vehicle and the linear speed of the apron is referred to, so that the relationship between the degree of shielding and the traveling speed of the vehicle can be obtained.

Wherein v is _car R is the running speed of the vehicle _w Is the wheel radius, ρ is the polar radius.

Thus, θ can vary with the running speed of the vehicle, and specifically can increase with an increase in the running speed of the vehicle. Next, a relationship between θ and the running speed of the vehicle is described as an example.

Assuming that a, α, K, m take the values shown in table 1, and substituting the following values into the above formula to calculate, the graph shown in fig. 8 can be plotted, and it can be seen from the graph that θ can be proportional to the running speed of the vehicle.

a(mm)	62
		α(°)	70
K(N/m)	18800
		m(kg)	0.01

TABLE 1

Thus, as the vehicle travel speed changes, θ changes accordingly, and can change between the three states shown in fig. 4a-4c, fig. 4a-4c show that the barrier does not cover the through space (the degree of shielding is 0%), that the barrier covers a part of the through space (the degree of shielding is between 0% and 100%), and that the barrier completely covers the through space (the degree of shielding is 100%), respectively.

In the above description, the shutter does not need any driving mechanism nor any external power supply, but moves only by the centrifugal force generated when the wheel rotates. Thus, the plurality of baffles can be automatically moved based on the running speed of the vehicle, thereby providing different shielding degrees of the penetrating space between the spokes to automatically adjust the air resistance.

In the following second embodiment, an example of driving the shutter to rotate using a driving mechanism is described. The second embodiment is mainly different from the first embodiment in that in the second embodiment, the drive mechanism controls the rotation angles of the plurality of shutters based on the running speed of the vehicle.

As shown in fig. 9 and 10, a wheel of the second embodiment is shown. The wheel comprises a drive mechanism 7 and a transmission assembly, the drive mechanism 7 comprising a motor 71 arranged within the hub 1, the transmission assembly being connected to a rotor of the motor and to a plurality of baffles, which are capable of causing the plurality of baffles to rotate when the rotor of the motor rotates. As shown in fig. 11, the transmission assembly includes a sun gear 72 connected to the rotor of the motor and configured to be rotatable therewith; a plurality of transmission gears 73 disposed around the sun gear 72 and connected to each other via a gear frame 74 to mesh with the sun gear 72; a ring gear 75 provided around the plurality of transmission gears 73, meshed with the plurality of transmission gears 73, and a plurality of shutters 5 mounted to the ring gear 75 so as to be rotatable together with the ring gear 75.

Upon rotation of the rotor of the motor, the sun gear 72 is caused to rotate, thereby causing the transfer gear 73 to rotate about the sun gear, which in turn causes the ring gear 75 to rotate circumferentially along with the plurality of baffles 5.

In this second embodiment, the motor is configured to cause the rotation angle of the flapper to vary with the running speed of the vehicle based on the following formula when the running speed of the vehicle is less than a predetermined threshold (e.g., 140 km/h): θ=k·v _car . When the running speed of the vehicle is equal to or greater than the predetermined threshold value, the motor is configured to set the rotation angle of the barrier to entirely cover the corresponding through space of the plurality of through spaces, and in this second embodiment, the rotation angle of the barrier is set to 36 degrees at this time. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the value of the rotation angle θ that completely covers the penetration space depends on the number of penetration spaces and the number of baffles. The motor is controlled by a controller, not shown, and is well known to those skilled in the art for controlling the motor using a controller, and thus will not be described in detail herein.

For the second embodiment, to power the motor, as shown in fig. 12, wires 76 may be integrated into the bearing 8 and the hub 1 to power the motor. Also shown in fig. 12 is the stator 712 of the motor 7 disposed within the hub 1, with the rotor 711 being coupled to the sun gear 72. The form of powering the motor described herein is merely an example, and it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that any other form of powering may exist, as long as the motor can be powered.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the utility model is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present utility model may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the utility model being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned.

Claims (14)

1. A wheel, comprising:

a hub;

a rim connected to the hub via a plurality of spokes spaced apart from one another to form a plurality of through spaces; and

a plurality of baffles, movably mounted to the wheel relative to the hub, are configured to move relative to the hub in response to changes in vehicle speed to provide different degrees of shielding of respective ones of the plurality of through spaces.

2. The wheel of claim 1, wherein the degree of shielding of a respective through space of the plurality of through spaces is based on a vehicle speed or a wheel speed.

3. The wheel of claim 2, wherein the degree of shielding of a respective through space of the plurality of through spaces increases with increasing vehicle speed.

4. A wheel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the shield is caused to move relative to the hub by centrifugal force generated by rotation of the wheel as the vehicle travels.

5. The wheel of claim 4, further comprising a plurality of grooves disposed on the hub, the plurality of baffles being movably mounted into respective ones of the plurality of grooves via respective projections so as to be movable relative to the hub along a particular trajectory under guidance of the grooves.

6. The wheel of claim 5, wherein the track of any one of the plurality of grooves is in the form of a logarithmic spiral having a start end and a finish end, the start end being closer to the origin and the finish end being further from the origin than the direction of the spiral of the logarithmic spiral.

7. The wheel of claim 6, wherein a spring is disposed in the channel and has one end connected to the projection of the shield and the other end connected to the terminal end.

8. The wheel of claim 2, further comprising a drive mechanism mounted to the hub and configured to drive the shield plate in a circumferential direction relative to the hub as the vehicle travels.

9. The wheel of claim 8, wherein the drive mechanism comprises:

a motor disposed within the hub;

a drive assembly coupled to the rotor of the motor and the plurality of baffles configured to cause rotation of the plurality of baffles when the rotor of the motor rotates.

10. The wheel of claim 9, wherein the transmission assembly comprises:

a sun gear connected to a rotor of the motor and configured to be rotatable with the rotor;

a plurality of transmission gears disposed around the sun gear and connected to each other via a gear frame to be engaged with the sun gear;

a ring gear disposed around the plurality of transmission gears, meshed with the plurality of transmission gears, and a plurality of shutters mounted to the ring gear so as to be rotatable together with the ring gear.

11. The wheel of claim 9, wherein the motor is configured to cause the angle of rotation of the barrier to vary with the travel speed of the vehicle based on the following equation when the travel speed of the vehicle is less than a predetermined threshold: θ=k·v _car 。

12. The wheel according to claim 11, wherein the motor is configured to set the rotation angle of the barrier to completely cover a corresponding through space among the plurality of through spaces when the running speed of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value.

13. The wheel of claim 12, wherein the predetermined threshold is 140km/h.

14. A motor vehicle, characterized in that it comprises a wheel according to any one of claims 1-13.

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