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The purpose of this paper is to show a multiaxial bench test for static and dynamic testing of leaf springs for suspension of commercial vehicles. The bench test simulates the critical operating conditions (track, ramp, speed bump on track, curves and braking), with stroke control for strength and deformation analysis. One of the main advantages in bench test is to reduce the time of the test, its repeatability, its cost saving and monitoring its performance through inspections and graphic records. The aim of the test is to evaluate the behavior in durability of the components, to analyze the possible failure mode and to be able to approve or reject the component based on the test's results. Criteria were set to accelerate the test by comparing signals measured on the field and bench test with deflection by stress curves. These criteria were maintained under extreme conditions for longer than the observed in previous and real applications.

The proper technology selection, depending on the application environment, will be discussed and exemplified in this paper through the analysis of the fuel level sensor technology selection applied to the Latin America environment. Commercial vehicles have a very particular requirement when it comes to fuel tanks configuration, depending on usage (autonomy), road conditions, weight distribution and application. The most common layout is the dual tank configuration where two tanks are connected to each other by means of communication vessels. After the selection of the fuel tank layout, the challenge is to correctly select the level sensor system, which provides useful information to the vehicle driver. If this measurement is not correctly performed, a significant logistic issue is raised, as usually, a commercial vehicle with full load carries up to 1200 liters of diesel (it will depend on the desired range).

During the field tests of a prototype of a cabin suspension assembly applied in a commercial vehicle it has been evidenced the premature failure in the torsion bar. Due to this failure, which happened with 20% of approval total test, one verified that the adding of a lateral displacement control bar (Panhard), attached to the torsion bar, promoted a significant additional force to it, which was not predicted in the initial dimensioning. Due to that, it was executed a re-design of the assembly, paying a special attention to the torsion bar, considering the influence of Panhard bar. To do that, several numerical simulations were carried out, using the finite element software Abaqus, whose boundary conditions were determined based on data collected in the field tests. Lately, the new concepts developed were submitted to bench tests, applying hydraulic actuators to apply the loads, in which one executed an experimental verification of stresses to calibrate the numerical models.

The development of weldable high-strength and wear-resistant steels have made modern structures such as booms and mobile equipment possible. These sorts of novel and effective designs could not be constructed with traditional mild steel. Unfortunately, the use of these novel steels requires proper design, and there is no practical design code for these novel steels. This paper addresses stability issues, which are important considerations for designs with high-strength steels, and the properties of the heat-affected zone, which may require special attention. Fatigue design is also discussed in this paper, and the importance of the weld quality is highlighted, along with discussions on which details in the weld are the most important. By comparing the test results with the classical load limit solution, it is determined that full plastic capacity is reached and that the samples display good strain properties.

Applying knowledge available at technical literature for cycle counting, damage caused by each load cycle through S-N curve, and fatigue damage accumulation by Palmgren-Miner rule, durability prediction is performed for a leafspring of a commercial vehicle with 6×4 suspension system. Max principal tension is measured by means of strain gages in the most representative points for fatigue life of the leafspring, determined with FEA, while vehicle runs over off-road track in a proving ground. Load and tension are also measured in a laboratory bench test for this component. Correlation between off-road track and bench test is then performed. Finally, representative samples of the component are tested with dynamic loading until fatigue fracture in bench test, and using data from these tests, statistical analysis is performed with application of Weibull distribution, allowing life prediction in statistical terms.

Depletion of fossil fuel reserves, the unsteadiness of their prices and the increasingly stricter exhaust emission legislation put forward attention of world towards use of alternate fuels. The ever increasing demand for ecologically friendly vehicles can be met by use of clean fuels like Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Hydrogen (H2). Lower carbon to hydrogen ratio of CNG makes it a cleaner fuel, due to this CNG is gaining popularity as an internal combustion (IC) engine fuel in transport sector. Hydrogen fuel for IC engines is also being considered as a future fuel due to its simple carbon less structure. However, several obstacles have to be overcome before widespread utilization of hydrogen as an IC engine fuel can occur in the transport sector. The 18 percent hydrogen enriched CNG fuel referred to as HCNG has the potential to lower emissions and could be considered a first step towards promotion of a Hydrogen economy.

This paper presents the study of chassis tuning of a commercial vehicle, which has a rear suspension with dual stage leaf spring assembly and a front suspension with double wishbone torsion bar. To balance the handling and ride performance of the vehicle, it is necessary to tune the key suspension parameters of the chassis including the dual stage stiffness of the leaf spring, the contact load of the leaf spring, the torsional rigidity of the torsion bar, the force curve of the front and rear dampers etc. The chassis tuning process of a physical commercial vehicle was first put forward. In the proposed flowchart, the kinematics and statics of front & rear suspensions were checked at the beginning of the tuning. Then the tire mechanical characteristics were tested by using a plate-type tire tester and the inertial parameters of the vehicle were indirectly measured. The K&C characteristics of front and rear suspensions were also tested and compared with the benchmark vehicle's.

Operating in an increasingly competitive market, buses and agricultural equipment are facing the changes that passed trucks and commercial vehicles. Those changes are affecting drastically the final cost of the product and consequently its relationship with the costumer. This constant for more competitive prices drives the companies to develop more aggressive strategies of components standardization on a global level, leading to the emergency of global products in regional applications, keeping regional particularity characteristics when operating in the field. In the bus market, it is confirmed that in various media and academic publications there are recurrent complains about driver comfort by several factors related from the ergonomics of the workplace, as well as with operators from agricultural implements.

The application of high-efficiency diesel engines, hybrid systems, waste heat recovery (WHR) systems, aftertreatment systems, and advanced drivetrains were all examined as possible approaches to improve the fuel consumption of heavy-duty, long-haul commercial trucks that mainly drive on highways. In this study, the strategies that were employed in an effort to improve the fuel consumption performance of the diesel engine itself and the results of evaluating and testing the actual engine are reported.

With the continuous improvement of the road condition, commercial vehicles get to be faster and more overloaded than before, which puts higher pressure on the vehicle braking system. Conventional friction braking has been difficult to meet the needs of high-power commercial vehicle. The auxiliary braking equipment will become the future trend for commercial vehicle. Hydraulic retarder is superior to secondary braking equipment. Previously hydraulic retarder research mainly focus on flow field analysis, the braking torque calculation, cascade system optimization and control methods for hydraulic retarder. The gas-liquid two-phase flow in working chamber is less researched. Based on this, this article discusses on the hydraulic retarder from two aspects. Firstly, this paper presents a block modeling method for hydraulic retarder system.

In a heavy commercial vehicle, the engine cooling package is designed by considering peak heat load on the vehicle cooling system from an engine end. In cooling systems, the major unit that consumes most power from the engine is the engine cooling fan. It was seen from the vehicle measured duty cycle data, for most of the time engine operates at part load condition. Regardless of demand from the engine cooling system, engine fan was operating continuously at equivalent speed of the engine. This results in continuous consumption of productive engine power from the fan end ultimately affecting vehicle fuel economy. The present study shows that low idle speed viscous fan has the potential to meet stringent engine cooling performance requirements and consumes less engine power throughout an actual vehicle duty cycle. Experiments were conducted on test vehicle with different fan speeds.

In commercial vehicle, Leaf Spring design is an important milestone during product design and development. Leaf springs are the most popular designs having multiple leaves in contact with each other and show hysteresis behavior when loaded and unloaded. Commonly used methods for evaluation of leaf spring strength like endurance trials on field and Rig testing are time consuming and costly. On the other hand, virtual testing methods for strength and stiffness evaluation give useful information early in the design cycle and save considerable time and cost. They give flexibility to evaluate multiple design options and accommodate any design change early in development cycle. A study has been done in Volvo-Eicher to correlate Rig result with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation result of Multi-stage Suspension Leaf Spring, entirely through Finite Element Analysis route.

Emissions, fuel economy, and performance are determined over a light and a heavy driving cycle designed to represent the vehicles in-use driving patterns. The vehicles are 2010 class 8 Freightliner tractor trucks equipped with Cummins engines with Selective Catalytic Reduction and Diesel Particulate Filter emission control systems. The hybrid has lower carbon dioxide emissions, better fuel economy, and nitrogen oxide emissions statistically the same as the conventional. The CO emissions are well below the standards for both vehicles, but they are higher from the hybrid. The higher CO emissions for the hybrid are primarily related to the cooling of the Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) during the standard 20 minute key-off soak between repeats of the driving cycles. With a 1 minute key-off soak the CO emissions from the hybrid are negative.

The tracked vehicle with a fully hydraulic driving system, which has a strong traveling performance of passing and mobility ability in the complex terrain, is a typical system of mechanical-electrical-hydraulic integration. At the same time, for the good low-speed stability of the hydraulic system, this vehicle is widely applied in most engineering projects. However, for the complexity and unpredictability of the motion state in the complex environment and the power matching of the driving system, the driving path of the tracked vehicle with hydraulic driving is difficult to control. Moreover, for the complicated interaction between mechanics, the establishment of the mathematical model is much more complex, and the traditional mechanics-control and hydraulic-control co-simulation can not accurately simulate this physical phenomenon. The kinematic and dynamics characteristics of the tracked vehicle are studied firstly, and the dynamics model is built.

The hydraulic retarder is an important auxiliary braking device for the heavy vehicle, which has some characteristics, such as the big brake torque and long duration braking, when the vehicle is traveling in braking state. However, the transmission power loss will be produced when the vehicle is traveling in non-braking state. This transmission power loss is called Air-friction. Firstly, the air flow distribution characteristics of retarder cavity are studied by computational fluid mechanics, and the Air-friction characteristic in different conditions is analyzed. Then, according to the Air-friction characteristics for the condition of different filling density, a set of vacuum air loss reduction system is designed. Meanwhile, the test bench for retarder Air-friction is set up, the test data of the revolution speed, pressure in cavity and air loss resistance is obtained according to the test bench for hydraulic retarder.

The phase-plane analysis technique has become a powerful tool for analyzing lateral stability of single-unit vehicles. Articulated vehicles, such as car-trailer combinations, consist of multiple vehicle units. Multi-unit vehicles exhibit unique dynamic features compared against single-unit vehicles. For example, a car-trailer may exhibit one of the three unstable motion modes, i.e., jack-knifing, trailer sway and rollover. Considering the distinguished configurations and dynamic features of articulated vehicles, it is questionable whether the phase-plane analysis method based on single-unit vehicles is applicable for analyzing the lateral stability of multi-unit vehicles. In order to address the problem, case studies are conducted to test the effectiveness of the phase-plane method for analyzing the lateral stability of a car-trailer combination, which is represented by a nonlinear vehicle model generated using the CarSim software package.

There is a need for reducing fuel consumption and thereby also reducing CO2 and other emissions in all areas of transportation and the forest industry is no exception. In the particular case of timber trucks special care have to be taken when designing such vehicles; they have to be sturdy and operate in harsh conditions and they are being driven empty half the time. It is well known that the aerodynamic resistance constitutes a significant part of the vehicles driving resistance and four areas in particular, front of vehicle, gap, side/underbody and rear of the vehicle contributes about one quarter each. In order to address these issues a wind tunnel investigation was initiated where a 1:6 scale model of a timber truck was designed to operate in a 3.6 m wind tunnel. The present model resembles a generic timber truck with a flexible design such that different configurations could be tested easily.

Various drag reduction strategies have been applied to a full size production pickup truck to evaluate their effectiveness by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The drag reduction devices evaluated in this study were placed at the rear end of the truck bed and the tailgate. Three types of devices were evaluated: (1) boat tail-like extended plates attached to the tailgate; (2) mid-plate attached to the mid-section of the tailgate and; (3) flat plates partially covering the truck bed. The effect of drag reduction by various combinations of these three devices are presented in this paper. Twenty-four configurations were evaluated in the study with the best achievable drag reduction of around 21 counts (ΔCd = 0.021). A detailed breakdown of the pressure differentials at the base of the truck is provided in order to understand the flow mechanism for the drag reductions.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG, is a byproduct of both natural gas processing and crude oil refining. As a chemical, propane (C3H8) is a nontoxic, colorless, and virtually odorless hydrocarbon. It is economical to store and transport in liquefied form. Due its availability and adoptability as engine fuel, propane is quickly becoming one of the viable alternatives fueling 17 million vehicles worldwide. So far, there are about 270,000 propane fueled vehicles in the U. S. This number represents about 1.6 percent of the world propane fueled vehicles. In this paper, a commercial viability a multi-year cost study of captive fleet buses is conducted for LPG as alternative mass transportation fuel in comparison with gasoline and diesel. The study is based on more than four million of recorded mass transportation service miles.

Last mile transportation is an important supply chain and transportation requirement for the movement of people and goods from a transport hub to a final destination in that area. In India this requirement is largely met by 3 wheelers and small 4 wheelers (below 1 ton payload). Greaves cotton Ltd. (GCL) has played an important role for last mile transportation solutions in India by developing suitable engines for the above category vehicles. GCL is already supplying single cylinder air cooled 400 cc diesel / CNG, 435 cc & 510 cc diesel and 510 cc water cooled CNG BSIII engines for 3 wheeler applications. Single cylinder water cooled 510 cc and 611 cc BSIII diesel engines are being supplied for small commercial 4 wheeler applications. In India, BSIV emission norms are in place since April 2010 in metro cities for 4 wheelers. CNG network is well established in most of these cities.