| 摘要 |
A tire assembly comprising a tire (12) having a tire cavity (84), first and second sidewalls (14, 16) extending respectively from first and second tire bead regions (20, 22) to a tire tread region (18), and at least one elongate air passageway (24) formed within a tire component is disclosed. The air passageway (24) comprises a series of elongate cavities (86), adjacent cavities (86) connected end to end by an elongate connecting channel (88, 90) having a channel diametric size smaller than a cavity diametric size. The air passageway (24) is contained within an elastic tire compound material operative to sequentially at least partially collapse each cavity (86) sequentially as the cavities (86) pass sequentially over a rolling tire footprint (100), whereby air is pumped from cavity (86) to cavity (86) through the connecting channel (88, 90) between an air passageway air inlet (26) and an air passageway air outlet (28). Also, a method for pumping air for maintenance of air pressure within a tire cavity (84) of a rolling tire (12) is disclosed. |
