Title: Some considerations of road surface and truck endurance

Authors: Akira Kawamura, Shigenori Nakajima, Takashi Nakatsuji

Addresses: Kitami Institute of Technology, 165 Koen-cho, Kitami, 090-8507, Japan. ' H/D Vehicle Test Section, Hokkaido Proving Ground, Isuzu Motors Limited, 489 Aza-Yonehara, Mukawa-cho, Yufutsu-gun, 054 Japan. ' Department of Civil Engineering, Hokkaido University, North 13, West 8, Sapporo, 060 Japan

Abstract: Maximum weight limits for heavy trucks have been recently established by the legislation in Japan to prevent pavement damage caused by heavy vehicles. The reduced weight limits require reduction of the weight of the body, making it necessary to review the policy of structural design of heavy vehicles. This study is divided into two parts. The investigation starts with an examination of the various actual road surface profiles, including unpaved roads and endurance test tracks. Characteristics of the road roughness are evaluated by the roughness index and classified by the power spectral densities. The second part deals with influence of surface roughness on endurance of heavy vehicle (dump truck) structural components. Based on previous measured results, cumulative damage fatigue caused by road load inputs is analysed by rain flow counting method and then ralated to the roughness index.

Keywords: dump trucks; durability; International Roughness Index; rain flow counting; roughness; road surface; unpaved road; truck endurance; heavy vehicles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1999.054636

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1999 Vol.6 No.1/2/3/4, pp.238 - 252

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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