THE 1ST STUDENT SYMPOSIUM ON MECHANICAL AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

OPTIMISATION OF RIMS FOR SHELL ECO-MARATHON VEHICLE

TO IMPROVE FUEL EFFICIENCY
J. S. Stoltze1, M. B. Nielsen1, S. V. Pedersen1, N. H. Petersen1, R. A. W. Peters1, and I. A.
Garroguerricaechevarria1
1

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Aalborg University

Fibigerstraede 16, 9220 Aalborg East, Denmark
Email: jstolt09@student.aau.dk, mbni09@student.aau.dk, svpe09@student.aau.dk, nhpe09@student.aau.dk,
rawp09@student.aau.dk, iaboit12@student.aau.dk,
web page: http://www.m-tech.aau.dk
Abstract
This article deals with the design and manufacture of a carbon fibre reinforced epoxy rim for a vehicle from
Team Aalborg Energy which participates in the Shell Eco-marathon, where students design, build, and drive
vehicles with the aim of increasing fuel efficiency. A V profile disc rim was found to be the best design based
on studies of lateral stiffness, rolling resistance, mass moment of inertia, and aerodynamic drag. A prototype of
the rim was manufactured by vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding to confirm the concept of the
manufacturing method and gain experiences that may be applicable in the manufacturing of the final rim. The
prototype rim has a mass of 2045 g, which corresponds to a mass reduction of 13% compared to the existing
aluminium rim with stainless steel spokes. Structural analyses of the adhesive bonding between the hub and the
discs were conducted since it was considered to be one of the critical areas of the design. Safety factors against
shear and peel failure were determined to be 66 and 35, respectively. As a result, the mass of the hub for the
final design can be reduced by 23.3% compared to the prototype hub if a safety factor of 10 is accepted. Finally,
an optimisation of the fibre layup was performed, where the optimum fibre orientation was found in order to
minimise the maximum Tsai-Wu failure index. The optimisation revealed that the optimal fibre direction is in
the radial direction, which is comparable to spokes.
Keywords: Aerodynamic, Finite element, Composite laminate, Composite rim design, Optimisation, Bonding
analysis
stiffness as the existing rim. Furthermore, it should
be designed according to the specifications of the
tyre manufacturer, which the existing rim is not.

1 Introduction
Shell Eco-marathon (SEM) is a competition on a
city track in Rotterdam, where students design, build,
and drive vehicles, with different propulsion
technologies and energy sources, in order to cover
the longest distance aiming on minimum energy
consumption. This creates a debate on the future of
vehicle design and promotes the necessity of fuel
efficiency. Team Aalborg Energy (TAE) takes part
in this competition and with the objective of
reducing the fuel consumption of their
UrbanConcept vehicle, a redesign of the rims is
desired in order to increase the overall efficiency.
The existing rim consists of an aluminium outer
contour connected to an aluminium hub by stainless
steel spokes and it can be seen in Fig. 1. The new
design is required to have at least the same lateral

Fig. 1. Existing rim.

Research in previous work of light weight rims has

been carried out and especially composite materials
are seen to be an alternative to aluminium in the
field of professional cycling to decrease the mass
and increase the stiffness, as it is shown by
companies such as Lightweight, Mad Fiber, DT
Swiss AG, and Wheelbuilder Inc. They use spoked
composite rims with increased rim depths and
different numbers of spokes and spoke profiles in
order to improve the aerodynamic performance. In
some wind conditions, disc rims are the optimum
shape when considering aerodynamic drag.
This paper presents the steps followed during the
design of a prototype rim and the manufacturing
process followed to ensure that the design is
manufacturable in composite materials. Later, a
structural analysis and an optimisation of the fibre
layup are presented to assess possible improvements
of the prototype design.
In order to perform these analyses and fulfil the
requirements for participating in the SEM, the forces
acting on the rim are estimated by examining several
load cases. The design of the rim is chosen on the
basis of stiffness analyses and calculations of energy
losses due to air resistance, moment of inertia, and
rolling resistance. Once the design is established, the
manufacturing process and the materials are chosen.
Finally, a critical adhesive bonding in the design is
considered using finite element (FE) analyses. The
fibre layup is optimised using a stress based failure
criterion as objective function.
2 Design of the Prototype Rim
The wheel performance is influenced by several
factors, and the design process involves studies in
statics, FE analysis, computational fluid dynamics
(CFD), and mechanics of composites. Attention will
be focused on the setup of the models and the
outcomes leading to the design of the prototype rim.
2.1 Requirements
SEM imposes several rules for the competition.
Specifically, the requirements affecting the design of
the rim are:
The braking system consists of two
independently activated brake systems. Each
system must be able to keep the vehicle
immobile on a 20% inclined road.

The wheel (tyre and rim) must have a

minimum width of 80 mm and the rim
diameter must be between 13 and 17 inches.
The minimum turning radius is 6 m.
In addition, TAE has the following requirements:
The rim should be designed to fit the
Michelin tyre 90/80-r16.
The rim is mounted on a 10 mm shaft.
The hub should include a standard 6-bolt
mounting connection for the disc brake and
housings
for
the
currently
used
CeramicSpeed 6001 (12x28x8 mm) bearings.
2.2 Static Load Determination
The forces acting on the rim are estimated based on
three load cases: stationary on the inclined road,
braking, and cornering. Simple models are studied at
first, followed by a two wheel steady state model.
The overall dimensions of the vehicle and its mass
are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3.

Fig. 2. Dimensions of the vehicle, side view.

Fig. 3. Dimensions of the vehicle, top view.

The most critical loads in y and z directions are

found during cornering and therefore, this model is
briefly presented.

profile designs on the stiffness. The relative stiffness

between the designs is therefore assumed to be the
same if profiles with spokes were considered.
The studied designs are a one disc rim, a two disc
rim, and a V profile rim as shown in Fig. 4.

In the cornering model it is assumed that both axles

are cornering around the same centre point. The
lateral force, Fz, acting on the centre of mass is equal
to the centripetal force determined from Eq. (1).
mv 2
(1)
Fz =
r
In Eq. (1) v is the velocity, r is the turning radius of
each wheel, and m is the mass sustained by each
wheel. A velocity of 8.33 m/s (30 km/h) and a
turning radius of the outer wheel of 8 m are defined,
since no smaller radius can be achieved at the
maximum speed, because the vehicle would
otherwise roll over or slide. During cornering, the
reaction force is not evenly distributed between the
outer and inner wheels because of the fictitious
centrifugal force acting at a distance yCM in the
steady state model of cornering. This force leads to a
moment that causes the vehicle to roll, i.e. the
reactions in the outer wheels increase and
consequently decrease equally in the inner wheels.
Considering this, the largest normal and lateral
forces are found in the outer rear wheel, Fz = 792 N
and Fy = 883 N.
The largest braking force in the x direction is found
for a braking distance, dbrake, of 6 m from a velocity
of 8.33 m/s. The model assumes a constant braking
force throughout the duration of the deceleration.
Thus, the braking force, Fbrake, is calculated from Eq.
(2).
E
mv 2
Fbrake = kin =
(2)
d brake 2d brake

Fig. 4. Rim profiles.

The designs have the same outer contour and hub

dimensions, but the thickness of the discs varies in
order to obtain similar total masses, such that the
stiffnesses are comparable. A static FE analysis is
performed for each design, in which the inner
surface of the hub is fixed in all three directions and
the forces calculated from the approach in Sec. 2.2
are applied as shown in Fig. 5(a) to Fig. 5(c), where
the forces are evenly distributed over an arc length
of 20. Furthermore, the maximum allowed pressure
for the tyre (5 bar) is applied normal to the entire rim
contour as illustrated in Fig. 5 (d).

In order to solve the equilibrium equations, the

braking forces on the rear, r, and front, f, are
determined using the relation between the normal
forces given in Eq. (3).
F yf
Fxf = Fbrake
(3)
F yf + F yr
The largest braking force is obtained in the front
wheel, Fx= 231 N.
Since the estimated forces are conservative, a safety
factor of only 1.5 is applied when dimensioning.
2.3 Lateral Stiffness
This study investigates the lateral stiffness in the yz
plane of three different disc rim designs. The main
focus of the study is to determine the effect of the

Fig. 5. Force boundary conditions.

Aluminium is used in the analyses since the study is

performed to determine how the rim design
influences the stiffness. The results obtained for the
displacement ranges (sum of max. and min.
displacement) are determined for the disc and these
are shown in Tab. 1.

Tab. 1: Displacement ranges for the three designs

Design
One-sided
Two-sided
V profile

The setup of the CFD analyses includes the

complete body of the Eco-racer, rims, and tyres. A
study is conducted to determine the average
effective wind speed and direction for a complete
lap on the track. This effective wind speed is
influenced by the velocity of the Eco-racer and the
wind speed. The average wind speed and direction
are determined based on a study of historical wind
data from The Hague Airport in Rotterdam [2], close
to where the SEM takes place.
Based on the study, the effective velocity and
direction (yaw angle) of the combined effects from
the wind and the velocity of the vehicle are
determined. The fluid domain (air at 20C and
atmospheric pressure) encapsulates the Eco-racer in
the CFD analyses. Other parameters are:
Inlet velocity = 8.28 m/s
Static outlet pressure = 0 Pa
Yaw angle = 17.6
Eco-racer and road: No slip condition
Top- and side-walls: Free-slip condition
Turbulence model: Shear Stress Transition
No. of nodes 1.0105

Displacement ranges (mm)

x
y
z
0.119
0.369
23.994
0.197
0.215
17.932
0.084
0.087
0.154

From the results it is clearly seen that the V profile is

the stiffest of the three analysed profile designs.
Therefore, this profile is chosen for the prototype.
2.4 CFD
Aerodynamic drag is an important aspect when
considering energy loss. The drag force depends on
the cross sectional area of the object perpendicular
to the flow direction, A, the density of the fluid, ,
the drag coefficient, CD, and the velocity, v, as seen
in Eq. (4). [1]
1
FD = AC D v 2
(4)
2
The drag coefficients have been determined
experimentally for general geometries in literature
such as [1], but for complex structures no analytical
approaches exist. Instead computational models
need to be set up. ANSYS CFX is used to determine
the aerodynamic drag of the four different rim
designs depicted in Fig. 6.

Fig. 7. Pressure streamlines for the vehicle. Notice that

the vehicle is rotated relative to the direction of fluid flow
(yaw angle = 17.6).

Moving meshes of the rotation of the wheels and the

movement of the road relative to the vehicle are not
included in the setup. It is found that the influence of
the wheels on the overall aerodynamic performance
is minute compared to the vehicle body, since only
3% of the total drag area (CDA) is related to the
wheels. The obtained results are compared to CFD
analyses of bicycle wheels in which the
aforementioned moving meshes are included [3] as

Fig. 6. The four analysed rim designs. From top left:

existing rim, disc rim, tri-spoke rim, and Zipp 1080inspired rim.

it is found that the disc rim is the best design option

with two inclined discs in the shape of a V to ensure
lateral stiffness. The prototype rim is illustrated in
Fig. 8.

well as wind tunnel tests of bicycle wheels [4].

Based on these, it is found that the disc wheel is the
best option for aerodynamic performance.
2.5 Energy Consideration
The total energy required to complete one lap is split
into five categories to determine the best overall
design of the four rims presented in Fig. 6. The
categories are: elevation changes, losses in the
drivetrain, rolling resistance, drag, and acceleration.
The track is a closed loop, thus, the energy required
to overcome elevation changes is neglected.
Furthermore, loss of energy in the drivetrain is
assumed to be unaffected by the rim design and it is
therefore neglected. The rolling resistance is
calculated from Eq. (5) in which, m is the total mass,
g is the acceleration due to gravity, and the
coefficient of rolling resistance is denoted crr.
Frr = mgc rr

(5)

Fig. 8. Prototype rim.

An energy comparison between the existing rim and

the disc rim is shown in Tab. 2.

The coefficient of rolling resistance depends on the

tyre, which is the same for all rims. Therefore, the
differences in rolling resistance purely depend on the
total mass, that is, the mass of the rims is the only
variable. The energy needed to overcome rolling
resistance (Err) is calculated from the assumption
that the force is parallel to the direction of travel
using Eq. (6). s denotes the distance over which the
force is applied.
E rr = Frr s

Tab. 2. The collected energy contributions of adjusted

values of drag

(6)

Rim

Edrag
[KJ]

Err
[KJ]

Eacc
[KJ]

Etotal
[KJ]

Existing

73.83

3.597

5.520

82.95

Disc

71.82

3.570

5.422

80.81

The energy gain by choosing the disc wheel

corresponds to a gain of 1.87 km/kWh.
3 Materials and Manufacturing Methods
The mass of the existing rim is 2347 g. In order to
reduce the mass, and at the same time maintain the
structural integrity, a fibre composite material is
chosen. Solid casting is used to avoid joining
processes between the discs and outer contour, and
the hub can be integrated directly in the solid cast.
However, the solid casting leads to a more complex
fibre layup and makes the inclusion of a core
material necessary. The process used is vacuum
assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM), which
gives a high quality product and avoids the expense
of a closed mould assembly.
3.1 Material Selection
Carbon fibres are selected because of their high
specific tensile strength and Youngs modulus,

The determination of the required energy to

overcome drag is similar to Eq. (6). The final energy
contribution affected by the wheel design is the
change in kinetic energy related to the acceleration
from rest. This energy is split into translational and
rotational energy:
1
1
v2
I
E kin = mv 2 + I 2 =
m + 2
(7)
2
2
2
r
In Eq. (7), m describes the total mass of the
translational system, v is the translational velocity, I
is the mass moment of inertia, is the angular
velocity, and r is the outer radius of the rotational
system. In the equation is replaced by v/r.
Combining the three types of energy loss affected by
the rim for all four rim designs (rolling resistance,
drag, and acceleration) shows that drag has the most
significant influence. As a result of the comparison,

which are needed to achieve high stiffness and low

mass. Fibre mats of 0/90 twill weave with a density
of 300 g/m2 and 45 stitched mats with a density of
400 g/m2 are used.
For the matrix, an epoxy resin is selected since it is
widely used in combination with carbon fibres. The
resin is chosen due to its low viscosity and long gel
time.
The hub is produced in aluminium 6065 due to its
low density.
The main reason for including a core is to make
solid casting possible, but the stiffness is increased
as well. DIAB Divinycell H60 is chosen as core
material primarily due to the low density.
The epoxy adhesive, Araldite 2014-1, is used to
bond the aluminium hub to the carbon fibre
reinforced epoxy.
3.2 Fibre Layup
It is recommended to orientate the fibres parallel to
the principle stress directions [5]. This corresponds
to the radial direction of the discs, but as it is
difficult to manufacture, it is decided to use three
layers of biaxial mats rotated 30 from each other as
shown in Fig. 9 to achieve a similar effect.
Assuming a fibre volume fraction of 0.5, the disc
thickness is determined to be approximately 1.3 mm.

Fig. 10. Outer contour fibre layup.

A proper connection between the discs and the outer

contour is needed, which is achieved by the layup
shown in Fig. 11. The bottom layer of the outer
contour (blue) is folded 90 mm onto the disc. A strip
of fibres (green) is placed around the core to
improve the connection and reduce the
antisymmetry in the fibre layup of the outer contour.

Fig. 11. Connection between discs and outer contour.

3.3 Rim Manufacturing

The mould for the VARTM process is constructed as
three individual parts to enable the layup of carbon
fibres as well as the demoulding. Furthermore, the
hub is constructed in an assembly of two parts. A
section view of the mould assembly is shown in Fig.
12. The outer mould consists of two parts to make
the demoulding possible. The resin outlet is placed
in the hub. The resin inlet is divided into two: one
following the circumference of the top of the outer
mould and one following the circumference of the
connection between the outer and bottom mould.
First, a slip layer of household plastic wrap is placed
on all surfaces of the mould to prevent adhesion
between the epoxy and the mould. The outer moulds
are joined and the fibre layers are placed in the outer
contour. The first part of the hub is placed in the
bottom mould followed by an infusion mesh to
increase the resin flow in the lower rim part. The
first fibre layer of the disc is glued to the hub using
Araldite 2014-1 and the following layers are placed
as seen in Fig. 11. Then, the core, with a strip of

Fig. 9. Fibre layup for the discs.

The principle stress state of the outer contour is

more complex. Therefore, plots of stresses in x, y,
and z directions are used, and the largest stress is
found in the z direction followed by the tangential
direction. Furthermore, shear stresses are present,
making fibres at 45 desirable. Thus, four layers of
0/90 and two of 45 are used as shown in Fig. 10
giving a symmetric laminate.

fibre, is placed and the layers of the second disc are

added. The second part of the hub is joined to the
first part and glued to the outer fibre layer. Finally,
the complete mould is placed in a vacuum bag and
the resin is infused. The rim is eventually cured in an
oven for 10 h at 80 C.

Due to the absence of analytical models for such a

bonding geometry, a FE analysis is performed in
ANSYS. The mesh consists of approximately 6000
PLANE183 elements with plane stress behaviour.
The FE analysis is conducted with four different
material models, a converged mesh, and the
boundary conditions shown in the model. The depth
of the model is 17 mm corresponding to the arc
length of the hub flanges subtended by the 20 angle
of the rim. The forces determined in Section 2.3 are
applied.
An additional model is used to determine the shear
stresses from the braking force present in the xy
plane. The resulting torsion on the hub is calculated
from the braking force acting on the tyre as
illustrated in Fig. 14(a). The shear stress distribution
in this model is illustrated in Fig. 14(b).

Fig. 12. Section view of the mould assembly.

After demoulding and trimming the excess material

on both sides of the outer contour, mass of the
prototype rim is 2045 g. This corresponds to a mass
reduction of 13% compared to the original rim.
4 Structural Analysis
The bonding between the hub and the discs is
examined because it is considered to be one of the
most critical parts of the rim. A 2D model is used to
examine the bonding as shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 14. Model to determine shear stresses in the bonding

due to the braking force.

4.1 Results
The results of the FE analysis of the shear and peel
stresses in the longitudinal direction of the adhesive
layer are shown in Fig. 15.
From the stress distribution plot in Fig. 15, it is seen
that the largest stresses are found close to the edges
of the adhesive. The safety factors against shear and
peel failure (Mode I opening) are determined using
the strength properties of the Araldite 2014-1
adhesive and the maximum determined shear stress
and peel force in the adhesive. The safety factors are
approximately 300 and 35 for shear and peel failure,
respectively.
In the additional model, it is assumed that the
torsional moment due to the braking force is divided
equally between the two flanges of the hub. The
safety factor against shear failure is calculated to 66.

Fig. 13. 2D model for bonding evaluation.

Fig. 15. The shear (SXY) and peel (SX) stresses in a local
coordinate frame in the longitudinal direction (y axis) of
the adhesive (x axis normal to the adhesive).

Fig. 16. Disc model for optimisation.

The TWFI are calculated in ANSYS, where 492

shell elements (SHELL181) are used to model the
thin laminate. Only the domain between the two red
circles in Fig. 17 is included in the optimisation
algorithm to avoid stress singularities.

The large values of safety factor lead to the

possibility of reducing the area of the adhesive and
thereby reduce the mass of the aluminium hub. If a
safety factor of 10 is accepted, investigations with
the FE model reveal the possibility of reducing the
total mass of the hub by 23.3%, which is equivalent
to a mass-reduction of 3.3% of the total rim.
5 Optimisation
Optimisation allows improvements of several
parameters of the prototype rim. However, the main
focus is the fibre layup in the discs, since changes in
fibre layup change the strength. The optimisation
objective is to minimise the maximum Tsai-Wu
failure index (TWFI), which is a failure criterion
developed for anisotropic material failure prediction
and often used in composites. It takes normal,
transverse, and shear strength and stresses into
account. The criterion, for plane stress, is presented
in Eq. (8), where Fi and Fij are strength
components[6].
TWFI = F1 1 + F2 2 + F6 6 + F11 12 +
(8)
F22 22 + F66 62 + 2 F12 1 2 < 1

Fig. 17: Mesh of the disc and the domain included in the
optimisation algorithm.

Each disc of the prototype consists of three biaxial

mats corresponding to six uniaxial layers. However,
only four uniaxial laminae are used in the model due
to computational time. Each layer has a thickness of
0.119 mm.
5.2 Trial and Error
A sequence of layups is generated based on
combinations of four angles (90, 45, 0 and -45)
measured relative to the x axis in Fig. 16. The
maximum TWFI for each layup is stored. The
minimum value is found for all layers oriented at 90

5.1 Optimisation Model

The disc is modelled in 2D, where the braking and
normal forces are applied in an arc of 20 and the
inner surface of the hub is completely fixated as
shown in Fig. 16.

and this layup is used as initial guess in the

sensitivity analysis.
5.3 Sensitivity Analysis
The optimum is found by perturbing the design
variables using gradient information to find the next
fibre layup to assess, instead of assessing layups
randomly. This will usually lead to a faster solution.
This approach requires a definition of an objective
function and a function based on the weighted global
criterion method is used as in Eq. (9) [7].

[ (

k
f ( x ) = wi f i f
i =1

)]

1
p p

(9)

In Eq. (9), x is a vector containing the values of the

design variables, wi is a weight factor, p is an integer
value, fi is a combination of all the objectives, f o is
an ideal value, and k denotes the number of
objectives. In this optimisation analysis, the ideal
value is not considered, p is set to 1 and wi to 5/i.
The objective function, failure, is a vector of sorted
values of the TWFI in descending order and k is
specified such that the objective function includes
the first 10% values of the failure vector. Thus, Eq.
(9) reduces to:
k 5

f ( x ) = failure (i )
(10)
i =1 i

Fig. 18. Improved optimisation model with four subareas.

The improved model gives four layers oriented at

90 in each local coordinate system. The optimal
fibre layups are the same in local coordinates due to
the largest TWFI being in the area of the disc
between the fixation and the line of the distributed
forces as shown in Fig. 19.

The design space is constrained by four layers of

-90 as lower bound and four layers of 90 as upper
bound. The optimisation algorithm is solved in
Matlab using fmincon and a sequential quadratic
programming solver is chosen as line search method.
This analysis results in the same optimum layup as
the trial and error. Fibres at 90 are the optimum
because the normal force dominates over the braking
force when considering laminate failure. However,
the braking force introduces shear stresses, which
can make fibre angles of 45 necessary.
The model is improved by dividing it into subareas
(see Fig. 18). This is done in order to consider the
changing location of the loads and the changing
orientation of the fibres as the wheel rotates. The
fibre layups are constrained in each subarea such
that the orientation refers to an individual local
coordinate system within each of the four subareas.
Increasing the number of subareas increases the
possibility for the layup to be the optimum for any
location of the loads.

Fig. 19. TWFI in the top layer. The black dot is the
highest value when neglecting singularities.

Based on the improved model, it can be deduced that

the optimum fibre layup is in the radial direction in
the same way as spokes connect the hub and the
outer rim contour in the existing rim design. Thus, if
the model is divided in a large enough number of
subareas, all fibres will be oriented in the radial
direction.

6 Conclusions
The rim was redesigned by considering the lateral
stiffness and the energy required to complete one lap,
and fulfilling the requirements from SEM and TAE.
The lateral stiffness analysis showed that a V profile
was the stiffest design and thus, it was used for the
prototype rim. From the energy considerations, it
was seen that most energy was lost due to
aerodynamic drag and a disc wheel was found to be
the best design of the four analysed redesign
proposals.
The V profile disc rim was manufactured using
vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding in order to
solid cast the carbon reinforced epoxy rim in a single
process. This required a core material, which
increased the stiffness, and a two-part aluminium
hub was integrated in the process using Araldite as
additional adhesive. A prototype rim with a mass of
2045 g was obtained, reducing the mass by 13%
compared to the existing rim.
A structural analysis of the bonding between the hub
and the disc revealed that the design will not fail in
this critical part of the prototype design. This was
deduced after analysing a 2D model where the
cornering and normal forces were applied to predict
the shear and peel stresses as well as a model for
calculating the shear stress resulting from braking.
Safety factors against failure of 300 and 35 were
obtained, respectively, in the first model, and a
safety factor of 66 against shear failure. If a safety
factor of 10 was accepted, the diameter of the
flanges could be reduced from 33 to 17 mm, thereby
reducing the mass of the hub by 23% and giving a
final mass of the total rim of 1978 g. Therefore, the
final rim will give an overall mass reduction of 15.7%
compared to the existing rim.
Finally, the fibre layup was optimised by setting up
an optimisation algorithm that minimised the
maximum Tsai-Wu failure index in a 2D model of
the disc. The model was divided into four subareas
to consider the rotation of the wheel. The sensitivity
analysis included the 10% highest Tsai-Wu failure
indices in the objective function, and found the
optimum fibre orientation to be at 90 in local
coordinates, i.e. the radial direction. This orientation
was obtained due to the normal force being
dominant.

10

7 Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the people from the
workshop, especially engineering assistants Sren
Erik Bruun, Leif Jakobsen, and Bjarne Kristensen,
for their help with manufacturing the prototype rim.
8
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