| 摘要 |
A self-inflating tire includes a tire cavity (40), first and second sidewalls (30, 32) extending respectively from first and second tire bead regions (34, 36) to a tire tread region (38), and an air tube (42) connected to the tire (12) and defining an air passageway (43). The air tube (42) is composed of a flexible material operative to allow an air tube segment (110) near a tire footprint (100) to flatten and close or substantially close the air passageway (43). The tire footprint (100) in the rotating tire is operative to flatten the air tube (42) segment by segment to pump air from the flattened air tube segments along the air passageway (43) in a direction counter to the direction of tire rotation. An inlet device (44) is positioned within the air passageway (43) operative to pass air into and out of the air passageway (43). And an outlet device (46) is positioned within the air passageway (43) operative in an open position to pass pumped air along the air passageway (43) into the tire cavity (40). |
