Title: Heavy vehicle road simulator experiments

Authors: Nezih Mrad, Pierre A. LeBlanc, Michael Stanzel, Xiaohua Tong

Addresses: Structures, Materials and Propulsion Laboratory, Institute for Aerospace Research, National Research Council of Canada, Montreal Road, Building M-3, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A-0R6, Canada. ' LaSalle, Ontario, Canada. ' Wolfsburg, Germany. ' Marlboro, New Jersey 07746, USA

Abstract: To develop better understanding of road/vehicle interaction, as it applies to the processes that lead to vehicle-generated road damage, experimental research reproducing vehicle wheel loads in a controlled environment was conducted on a four-actuator road simulator. Three instrumented vehicles were used, two two-axle trucks and one five-axle tractor-trailer. Tests on the two-axle trucks revealed limitations of conventional wheel-load instrumentation and poor level of wheel-load replication. Four-actuator road simulator tests on the five-axle tractor-trailer revealed that conventional wheel-load instrumentation on trailers can produce very accurate load measurements.

Keywords: dynamic wheel loads; road damage; road-friendly suspension systems; road simulator testing; vehicle-road interaction; wheel load instrumentation; heavy vehicles; vehicle suspensions; simulation; trucks; tractor-trailers; load measurements.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2007.013258

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2007 Vol.14 No.2, pp.111 - 134

Published online: 14 Apr 2007 *

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