Rolling resistance and rolling loss of industrial truck wheels with polyurethane tread with regard to their degree of hardness

Abstract

Rolling resistance is of central importance when it comes to evaluating the rolling quality and efficiency of a wheel or roller. The energy consumption of a vehicle is significantly influenced by rolling resistance. This is one of the reasons why research in the automotive sector has focused on understanding the physical processes that result in rolling resistance and finding ways to reduce it for approximately the last 100 years. Rolling resistance is equally relevant in the context of industrial trucks and their energy consumption, even though the driving speeds in this area are significantly lower. However, there are only a few dedicated experimental studies on wheels with solid polyurethane treads, and the existing test series indicate that the relevant rolling resistance theories are only of limited validity for this material or, in some cases, contradict the operational behavior of polyurethane treads. Therefore, the experiences obtained for air filled tires cannot be directly applied.