Title: Development of a 30,000 kg heavy goods vehicle for LS-DYNA applications

Authors: Ali Osman Atahan, Guido Bonin, Murat Karacasu

Addresses: Department of Civil Engineering, Mustafa Kemal University, Tayfur Sokmen Campus, 31040, Hatay, Turkey. ' Dept. of Hydraulics, Transportation and Roads, Sapienza – University of Rome, Via Eudossiana 18, 00184 Rome, Italy. ' Department of Civil Engineering, Osman Gazi University, Bati Meselik Campus, 26480, Eskisehir, Turkey

Abstract: In this paper, a finite element model of a 30,000 kg Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) was developed and validated against full-scale crash test data. Since this vehicle is a standard test vehicle in the European crash test standards, EN1317, development of an accurate vehicle model was deemed to be a positive contribution to the evaluation of roadside safety hardware. The vehicle model reproduces a FIAT-IVECO F180 truck, a vehicle with four axles and a mass of 30,000 kg when fully loaded. The model consisted of 12,337 elements and 11,470 nodes and was built for and is ready to use with LS-DYNA finite element code from Livermore Software Technology Corporation. Data available from two previously performed full-scale crash tests, one on a steel bridge rail and the other on a portable concrete barrier, were used to validate the accuracy of the HGV model. Results of the finite element simulation study show that the developed HGV model shows promise and can accurately replicate the behaviour of an actual HGV in a full-scale crash test. Improvements such as the steering mechanism in the front axles and the suspension system are currently underway to make the model more realistic.

Keywords: heavy vehicles; computer simulation; LS-DYNA; finite element method; FEM; crash tests; computational mechanics; EN1317; roadside safety hardware; HGV models; vehicle safety; steering mechanism; vehicle suspension.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2007.011929

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2007 Vol.14 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Published online: 01 Jan 2007 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article