Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroyuki Ikegami

Yuichi Yoshimura

Toru Nirei

Yoichi Kamiyama

Chiharu Sato

Disclosed is a vehicle tire structure in which a tubeless pneumatic tire is fitted over a wheel, characterized in that: at least a pair of walls project in substantially radial direction from an outer circumferential surface of the wheel into an annular chamber defined between the tire and the wheel. These walls prevents the generation of standing waves or the air column resonace inside the tire and contribute to the overall reduction of the road noise of the vehicle. The proximal ends of the walls may be either bonded to an annular member which surrounds the wheel or pivoted to a similar annular member and biased into radial or upright positions by a spring member, in such a manner as not to interfere with the replacement of the tire. Alternatively, the walls may consist of inflatable bags which may be inflated into upright positions and deflated into flat positions.

Vehicle tire structure

The wheel of the present invention reduces road noise without using a special tire. The wheel includes a wheel body and a silencing chamber formed around the wheel body. The silencing chamber communicates with an air chamber in the tire via communication port. The phase difference between a compressional wave in the air chamber and a compressional wave returned to the air chamber from the communication port cause attenuation of the road noise.

Growing community of inventors

Wako, Japan

Hiroyuki Ikegami