Increasing demand for road freight has lead to a widespread adoption of more-productive large freight vehicles (LFVs), such as B-Doubles, by Australia's road freight industry. Individual LFVs have a greater potential to impact traffic efficiency through their greater length and poorer longitudinal performance. However, this is offset to an extent as fewer vehicles are required to perform a given freight task on a tonne-km basis. This research has developed a means of characterising the effects that large freight vehicles have on the performance of an urban arterial corridor managed by signalised intersections. A corridor-level microsimulation model was developed from first principles, which modelled the longitudinal performance of individual vehicles to a greater accuracy than most existing traffic simulation software does. The model was calibrated from traffic counts and GPS-equipped chase car surveys conducted on an urban arterial corridor in Brisbane's southern suburbs. The model was applied to various freight policy and traffic management scenarios, including freight vehicle mode choice, lane utilisation and traffic signal settings; as well as the effectiveness of green time extension for approaching heavy vehicles. Benefits were able to be quantified in terms of reduced travel times and stop rates for both heavy and light vehicles in urban arterial corridors.

Os ensaios acelerados de pavimentos em escala real consistem na aplicação controlada de uma carga de roda igual ou acima da carga máxima legal permitida, em uma estrutura de pavimento, seja este um pavimento-teste ou uma via existente, para se determinar a resposta do sistema e o seu desempenho sob condições controladas e aceleradas de acúmulo de danos num espaço limitado de tempo (METCALF, 1996). Esses ensaios podem ser realizados hoje, tanto por simuladores instalados em campos de prova destinados a este único fim, quanto por simuladores móveis, cuja composição é rebocável ou autopropelida e pode ser posicionada no local a ser pesquisado, o que se mostra especialmente vantajoso no estudo de materiais e técnicas de restauração de pavimentos por preservar as condições de contorno. Apresentam-se os resultados dos primeiros testes acelerados em pavimentos com simulador de tráfego linear móvel no Brasil e suas contribuições para o desenvolvimento das técnicas, processos de projeto e planejamento rodoviários. Apresenta-se também uma síntese dos ensaios acelerados de pavimentos em escala real com simuladores de tráfego lineares móveis, com o objetivo de mostrar o estágio atual do conhecimento nessa área, a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica e associando esses conhecimentos a casos práticos. Como contribuição para futuros trabalhos, com base na análise das pesquisas já finalizadas e dos resultados já obtidos, foi elaborada uma proposta de método para a realização de simulação em pista e de ensaios a serem conduzidos antes, durante e após o término da simulação, dependendo do objetivo específico dos ensaios acelerados. / Full-scale accelerated pavement testing is defined as the controlled application of a wheel load in a pavement structure to determine the pavement system response and its performance under accelerated conditions of accumulated damage in a compressed time period (METCALF, 1996). Loads at or above the legal maximum allowed by highway agencies can be applied at test tracks, using simulators designed solely for this purpose, or at existent roads using mobile simulators positioned right at the road pavement structure. This layout provides an interesting advantage in the study of materials and pavement rehabilitation techniques by preserving field conditions, specially structural and environmental characteristics. This research describes the results from the first accelerated pavement tests with mobile linear traffic simulator in Brazil and their contribution for the development of design procedures, distress monitoring methods, and road planning. As part of this research, a wide literature review was done associated with practical case studies, the current stage of knowledge in this area, and a real scale synthesis of accelerated pavement experiments with linear mobile traffic simulators. This research proposes a simulation method for testing pavement sections and the evaluation tests to be performed according to the objective of the accelerated pavement test study. This research is a contribution to the state of practice of this type of accelerated pavement testing in Brazil and outlines the path for future applications of this technology in the country.

Esse trabalho visa a estudar os efeitos dinâmicos provocados por um veículo classe 3C em uma ponte de concreto de seção unicelular, com curvatura em planta, por meio da modelagem do veículo, do pavimento, das forças de interação veículo-pavimento e da estrutura. Partiu-se do modelo do veículo com nove graus de liberdade, considerando o desacoplamento dos esforços longitudinais de interação dos esforços transversais (força de inércia centrífuga). Foram calculados os carregamentos provenientes do veículo modelado, primeiramente sobre tabuleiro rígido indeslocável, considerando as irregularidades geométricas apresentadas no pavimento, com perfis iguais ou distintos sobre cada linha de pneus. Estes carregamentos foram condensados estaticamente e aplicados em um modelo estrutural simplificado (\'unifilar\') de uma ponte em seção unicelular. Utilizou-se um método iterativo para a obtenção dos esforços de interação, até se alcançar a convergência. Ainda foram confrontados resultados para duas situações de tráfego, sendo a primeira para veículo isolado trafegando sobre a estrutura e a segunda para um comboio de veículos. Por fim, as respostas dinâmicas obtidas da interação veículo-estrutura do modelo foram comparadas com uma resposta quase-estática, para a obtenção dos coeficientes de amplificação dinâmica. / This dissertation aims at studying the dynamic effects produced by a 3C class vehicle on a curved concrete bridge with box girder section, by modelling the vehicle, the roughness profile, the bridge-vehicle interaction forces and the structure. It started from a model with nine degrees-of-freedom, considering the uncoupling of the longitudinal interaction forces of the transversal forces (centrifugal force of inertia). The loads are evaluated for the vehicle model travelling, firstly on a rigid uneven pavement, considering equal and different roughness profiles under the tires. These loads are statically condensed at the centre of gravity of the car and applied to a simplified (\'unifilar\') structural model of a concrete bridge with box girder section. An iterative method has been used to obtain the interaction forces until the convergence could be achieved. Furthermore, the results for two traffic situations were compared, the first being when a single vehicle is traveling along the structure, whereas the second refers to a train of vehicles. Finally, the dynamic response obtained from the bridge-vehicle interaction was compared with a quasi-static response, allowing for the evaluation of the dynamic amplification coefficients.

This thesis is about the development of a function that assists the driver of a heavy vehicle to do an estimation over the possibilities to overtake a preceding heavy vehicle. The function utilizes Look-Ahead and vehicle-to-vehicle communication to do a calculation of the distance between the vehicles in some road distance ahead. Consequently the report also contains an investigation of what data that is needed to be known about a vehicle to be able to do a satisfying estimation about this vehicle. The most vital problem is to estimate what velocity the vehicle will get in an uphill/downhill slope. A Simulink model is developed to simulate the function with two independent vehicles. Real tests are also performed to evaluate the velocity estimation part of the function.

Society of today is struggling with both large amounts of emissions as well as congestion on the roads. For this reason, AFRY in collaboration with Volvo GTT is working on develop and implement longer and heavier transports in traffic network. These combinations are called high capacity transport and have high performance-based demands. Dynamic stability is one demand that can be improved for the DUOCAT, which is a high capacity transport combination. The hypothesis is that a displacement backward in the direction of travel of the v-stay can improve the dynamic stability. The v-stay is a component of the rear wheel suspension and has an important function regarding dynamic stability by absorbing lateral forces. To achieve better dynamic stability, the goal is to create counter steering on the rear axle of the DUO-CAT through small design changes on the v-stay. The suggestion from Volvo is to move the v-stay backward in the direction of travel, which in this thesis has become the focus in both concept generation and design work. The thesis includes development of new concepts of the v-stay. An extensive evaluation process consisting of dynamic analysis was carried out in PTC Creo Parametric, which made it possible to compare the new concepts with the current v-stay. An important part of the thesis is to obtain a simplified model that simulate the physical conditions. The delimitations are to examine lateral acceleration with load on the axle and friction between asphalt and wheels. The maneuver in the analyses emulates a quick lane change at 80 km/h. This has resulted in a new concept that includes the current v-stay where only the position on the frame and axle is changed with the help of new fastening components. The new concept provides an increased counter steering of 6%. The conclusion is that a displacement backwards in the direction of travel of the vehicle gives an increased counter steering. Future work is required to achieve the desired improved steering and safety requirements.

No description available.

The effect of center of gravity (CG) height and lateral and longitudinal off-centering on high-speed roll stability of A-double tractor trailers with 28-ft and 33-ft straight-rail and drop-frame trailers is evaluated through simulation and track testing. The changes in CG position due to the type of trailer (straight-rail vs. drop-frame) and laterally and longitudinally off-centered loads are considered. The simulation results show that imbalanced trailer loading induces roll instability and increases the likelihood of trailer rollover. Additionally, for equal loading conditions, the drop-frame trailers exhibit better roll stability than straight-rail trailers because of the lower CG. The simulation evaluation of 28-ft A-doubles is complemented with track testing of 33-ft trailers in alike (Drop-Drop and Straight-Straight) and mixed (Drop-Straight and Straight-Drop) arrangements of front and rear trailers, for various steering maneuvers that represent highway driving, such as exit ramp, obstacle avoidance, etc. The test trailers include specially designed load frames for emulating a loaded trailer in various loading conditions, outriggers for preventing trailer rollover, and durability structures for withstanding the torsional and bending moments resulting from the tests. Various sensors, including GPS, LiDAR units, accelerometers, string pots, and pressure transducers, are used, along with an onboard data acquisition (DAQ) system, for collecting the necessary data for post-analysis. Analysis of the test data indicates that the Drop-Drop configuration exhibits higher roll stability than the Straight-Straight configuration. For mixed trailers, the Drop-Straight configuration exhibits higher roll stability in exit ramps, but lower obstacle avoidance stability. Equipping the trailers with a roll stability control (RSC) system improves roll stability in terms of increasing the rollover threshold speed and tolerating more aggressive lane change steering maneuvers for A-doubles in various conditions. The RSC performance increases further when the brake application is synchronized between the two trailers to account for any lateral dynamic delay that naturally occurs. A novel interconnected RSC system is proposed to eliminate the lag between the RSC modules with a new control logarithm. The proposed RSC system increases the trailers' roll stability by 16% when compared with independent RSC systems that are commonly used for A-doubles. / Doctor of Philosophy / Commercial trucks play an indispensable role in transporting goods in society. A large percentage of the goods that we use daily or are delivered to our homes are transported on the nation's highways. Most often, the average automobile driver notices the presence of trucks on highways, at times with a bit of disdain. The public's perception appears to be formed by the fact that accidents involving commercial trucks are more publicized because they can cause more property damage, injuries, or even fatalities. The primary thrust of this research is to make the nation's highways safer by offering a better understanding of the dynamics of trucks with double trailers that are operated with a higher frequency on public highways. The double trailer configuration is often favored because of its larger cargo capacity and high modularity. However, their roll dynamics are not as well understood as the conventional tractor-semitrailers. Understanding the dynamics of double-trailer trucks is undoubtedly the very first step toward preventing or reducing the traffic accidents caused by rollovers. This study provides detailed analysis of roll dynamics for double trailers with imbalanced payloads. It also evaluates the effect of different types of trailers, such as drop-frame trailers (those with a "belly" in the mid-section of the trailer) and straight-rail trailers (those without a "belly") on their rollover propensity. The commercialized RSC system is evaluated for its effectiveness on the double-trailer truck. The evaluations are based on over 1,000 sets of tests in highly controlled conditions at the Transportation Research Center (TRC), a special facility for vehicle dynamic assessment in East Liberty, Ohio. It is found that the rollover dynamics of trucks with double trailers can be improved by having an awareness of the most favorable trailer arrangements according to their types of trailers and type of steering (exit-ramp or obstacle avoidance). In addition, this study provides the analysis of the commercialized RSC system for its effectiveness on the double-trailer truck. Lastly, a novel RSC system is proposed to further improve the effectiveness of the original RSC system.

O problema da interação dinâmica entre ponte rodoviária e veículo pesado tem sido, há pouco mais de uma década, tema de muitos estudos. O objetivo é considerar as ações dinâmicas de forma mais realista e definir novos critérios de projeto. Este trabalho contribui com um estudo teórico, por elementos finitos, sobre as respostas dinâmicas de pontes considerando a interação com as respostas do veículo. A interação entre ambos é tratada por meio do acoplamento das suas matrizes, e as respostas no tempo do sistema ponte/veículo acoplado são calculadas pelo método de Newmark. A estrutura é representada por elementos de placa de 9 nós e o veículo por modelo tridimensional com 7 e 11 graus de liberdade para veículos com 2 e 3 eixos, respectivamente. Os modelos são elaborados com dimensões e características de estruturas reais. A travessia do veículo é representada pela mudança de posição dos pneus de nó em nó do modelo da estrutura. Para cada posição do veículo são obtidas as matrizes de massa, amortecimento e rigidez do sistema acoplado, desde a entrada do 1° eixo até a saída do último. As respostas são calculadas para diversas condições de operação simuladas pela combinação de diferentes peso e velocidade do veículo com diferentes rugosidades da pista. Os resultados numéricos se mostraram coerentes com os resultados de análises dinâmicas realizadas experimentalmente, obtidos na literatura, e possibilitaram visualizar alguns dos problemas observados em pontes reais. / Since the past decade, the problem of interaction between vehicle and structure responses has been object of many studies. The objectives are to consider the dynamic loads in a more realistic way and to define new design criteria aiming safety and economy. In this thesis, a theoretical investigation on the dynamic response of highway bridge submitted to heavy vehicle, using the finite elements method, is presented. This analysis considers the interaction between vehicle response and structure response through the coupling matrices of both. The detailed models are idealized with magnitude and characteristics of real structures. The bridge is idealized with plate elements of 9 nodes, and the vehicle, with a three-dimensional model. The traffic is considered by changing tires\' position node by node on bridge model, hence the mass, stiffness and damping matrices are updated in agreement with the position of the vehicle. It allows the evaluation of the behavior of the structure from the first axle entrance to last axle exit. The applied forces to the structure are related, besides to the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle, to its speed and the surface irregularities. The time-dependent responses are calculated by Newmark\'s method. The numeric results have allowed the visualization some of the observed problems in real bridges.

O problema da interação dinâmica entre ponte rodoviária e veículo pesado tem sido, há pouco mais de uma década, tema de muitos estudos. O objetivo é considerar as ações dinâmicas de forma mais realista e definir novos critérios de projeto. Este trabalho contribui com um estudo teórico, por elementos finitos, sobre as respostas dinâmicas de pontes considerando a interação com as respostas do veículo. A interação entre ambos é tratada por meio do acoplamento das suas matrizes, e as respostas no tempo do sistema ponte/veículo acoplado são calculadas pelo método de Newmark. A estrutura é representada por elementos de placa de 9 nós e o veículo por modelo tridimensional com 7 e 11 graus de liberdade para veículos com 2 e 3 eixos, respectivamente. Os modelos são elaborados com dimensões e características de estruturas reais. A travessia do veículo é representada pela mudança de posição dos pneus de nó em nó do modelo da estrutura. Para cada posição do veículo são obtidas as matrizes de massa, amortecimento e rigidez do sistema acoplado, desde a entrada do 1° eixo até a saída do último. As respostas são calculadas para diversas condições de operação simuladas pela combinação de diferentes peso e velocidade do veículo com diferentes rugosidades da pista. Os resultados numéricos se mostraram coerentes com os resultados de análises dinâmicas realizadas experimentalmente, obtidos na literatura, e possibilitaram visualizar alguns dos problemas observados em pontes reais. / Since the past decade, the problem of interaction between vehicle and structure responses has been object of many studies. The objectives are to consider the dynamic loads in a more realistic way and to define new design criteria aiming safety and economy. In this thesis, a theoretical investigation on the dynamic response of highway bridge submitted to heavy vehicle, using the finite elements method, is presented. This analysis considers the interaction between vehicle response and structure response through the coupling matrices of both. The detailed models are idealized with magnitude and characteristics of real structures. The bridge is idealized with plate elements of 9 nodes, and the vehicle, with a three-dimensional model. The traffic is considered by changing tires\' position node by node on bridge model, hence the mass, stiffness and damping matrices are updated in agreement with the position of the vehicle. It allows the evaluation of the behavior of the structure from the first axle entrance to last axle exit. The applied forces to the structure are related, besides to the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle, to its speed and the surface irregularities. The time-dependent responses are calculated by Newmark\'s method. The numeric results have allowed the visualization some of the observed problems in real bridges.

Mechanistic-Empirical  (M-E)  pavement  design  procedures  are  composed  of  a  reliable  response model to estimate the state of stress in the pavement and distress models in order to predict the different types of pavement distresses due to the prevailing traffic and environmental conditions. One of the main objectives of this study was to develop a response model based on multilayer elastic  theory   (MLET)  with  improved  computational  performance  by   optimizing  the   time consuming parts of the MLET processes. A comprehensive comparison of the developed program with  two  widely  used  programs  demonstrated  excellent  agreement  and  improved  computational performance.  Moreover,  the  program  was  extended  to  incorporate  the  viscoelastic  behaviour  of bituminous materials through elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle. A procedure based on collocation of linear viscoelastic (LVE) solutions at selected key time durations was also proposed that improved the computational performance for LVE analysis of stationary and moving loads. A comparison  of  the  LVE  responses  with  measurements  from  accelerated  pavement  testing  (APT) revealed a good agreement. Furthermore the developed response model was employed to evaluate permanent deformation models  for  bound  and  unbound  granular  materials  (UGMs)  using  full  scale  APTs.  The  M-E Pavement  Design  Guide  (MEPDG)  model  for  UGMs  and  two  relatively  new  models  were evaluated  to  model  the  permanent  deformation  in  UGMs.  Moreover,  for  bound  materials,  the simplified  form  of  the  MEPDG  model  for  bituminous  bound  layers  was  also  evaluated.  The measured  and  predicted  permanent  deformations  were  in  general  in  good  agreement,  with  only small discrepancies between the models. Finally, as heavy traffic loading is one of the main factors affecting the performance of flexible pavement, three types of characterizations for heavy traffic axle load spectrum for M-E analysis and design of pavement structures were evaluated. The study recommended an improved approach that enhanced the accuracy and computational performance. / <p>QC 20140512</p>