Simulation on heat transfer characteristics of vehicle wheel reductor

In order to solve explosion of the heavy-duty commercial vehicle tires under high speed conditions which was caused by the high temperature derived from the planetary wheel reductor, a disk fin was proposed. Firstly, heat transfer and aerodynamics characteristics of the rotating fin in still and crossflow air were studied by numerical simulation, and appropriate correlations were derived for Nusselt number as function of similarity numbers which could be served as the verification for accuracy of computation fluid dynamic model by comparing with correlations obtained in related literatures. Then, heat dissipating capacity of fin was also predicted in high speed conditions. Finally, temperature field of the wheel (rim and drum) was simulated with calculated applied heat and simulated heat transfer coefficient to be the boundary conditions, which shows that the temperature of rim surface was decreased after the installation of fin which verified the heat dissipating effect of the disk fin. Consequently, the heat dissipating solution was proved to be effective that heat transfer characteristic of wheel reductor was improved a lot by disk fin and the possibilities of tires explosion under high speed condition were reduced.