Reinventing the Wheel

A rational approach to the mechanical design of wheel rims as a typical periodic structure is presented in the current work. With novel application of the latest bidirectional evolutionary structural optimization method, a procedure is presented for the optimal topological design of wheel rims. Design applications are studied with realistic loads on a general vehicle in various scenarios, where the results not only demonstrate originalities of wheel patterns, but also provide insights into existing wheel designs. The simplicity and generic nature imply the general applicability of the proposed approach to a wide range of wheel designs. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4003411]