ROAD SIMULATOR STUDY OF HEAVY-VEHICLE WHEEL FORCES

The main objective of the study was to investigate the effects of vehicle and road characteristics on dynamic forces applied by heavy vehicles on pavement. The work conducted under this contract can be divided into three major areas: (1) development of equipment necessary for the testing program, (2) performance of the tests, and (3) analysis of the test results. The three main pieces of equipment used in this study were a road simulator, a two-axle truck, and a wheel force transducer. The road simulator was not operational when the project began, and a major effort was devoted to first make the simulator operational and then to improve its performance to the level dictated by the research objectives of this study. A new wheel force transducer was designed, fabricated, and tested. It was demonstrated that the transducer provides a reliable and accurate tool for measuring dynamic tire forces generated by heavy trucks. The tests involving the two-axle truck were conducted on the road simulator, on three road sites in Virginia, and on an instrumented test road section. In addition, three tire types, including two popular dual tire types and a wide-base single tire, were tested. The test variables in the road simulator experiments included suspension type (steel leaf spring and air bag), tire type, vehicle speed, road roughness, axle static load, and tire inflation pressure. The air suspension generated lower dynamic loads in tests conducted on low- to medium-roughness roads at low to medium speeds. There were no benefits from using air suspension when the vehicle was traveling at higher speeds on high roughness roads. The differences between dynamic loads produced by the three tire types were relatively small. Furthermore, it was found that the dynamic tire forces were strongly affected by vehicle speed and road roughness and moderately affected by axle static loads. The effects of tire inflation pressure were very small. The results of the tests further demonstrated that the magnitude of dynamic loads is significant in comparison to static loads applied by heavy trucks to pavements. The standard deviation of the dynamic loads was over 20% of the static loads, whereas the peak dynamic loads measured on in-service roads exceeded the static loads by more than 200%.

• Record URL:
  https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/21000/21800/21891/PB99146730.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Pennsylvania State University, University Park

  Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, Transportation Research Building
  University Park, PA  United States  16802

  Federal Highway Administration

  Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike
  McLean, VA  United States  22101
• Authors:
  • Streit, D A
  • KULAKOWSKI, B T
  • Sebaaly, P E
  • Wollyung, R J
• Publication Date: 1998-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 272 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Defects; Driving simulators; Dynamic loads; Heavy vehicles; Inflation; Motor vehicles; Pavements; Roughness; Speed; Static loads; Suspension systems; Testing equipment; Tire forces; Tire pressure; Tires; Traffic speed; Transducers; Two axle trucks; Wheel base; Wheel loads
• Uncontrolled Terms: Dual tires; Pavement damage; Road simulators; Wide base tires
• Old TRIS Terms: Tire force measurement
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Pavements; Vehicles and Equipment; I22: Design of Pavements, Railways and Guideways; I23: Properties of Road Surfaces;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00754977
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-RD-98-019,, PTI 9712, 3C4A,, Final Report
• Contract Numbers: DTFH61-90-C-00084
• Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 6 1998 12:00AM