With an increasing number of transport operators seeking permits to operate nonstandard
or purpose-built vehicle types, information is required to assist road authorities
to determine which vehicle types could operate on the road network without
compromising the safety of other road users.
A project was created by ARRB TR to develop guidelines for determining route access
for heavy vehicles. This project was developed in conjunction with the state road
authorities, the National Road Transport Commission and the transport industry to
obtain an understanding of the road space requirements for a range of common vehicle
types. This project is the subject of this thesis.
Two series of field experiments were conducted with six common heavy vehicle types
on public roads west of Parkes NSW. Information collected during these full-scale
experiments was used to increase the knowledge of the dynamic behaviour of these
vehicles and to develop model route access guidelines. Data obtained from these field
experiments also provided information to validate computer models and simulation
outputs.
This thesis showed that:
1) There was experimental evidence to demonstrate that vehicle lateral movement is
excited by differences in vehicle wheelpath profiles (point-by-point pavement
crossfall), which make a contribution to trailing fidelity (swept width), offtracking
and swept path;
2) Vehicle type and speed are prime influences on the lateral movement of the rear
trailer and therefore an important input into the model route access guidelines.
Notwithstanding the practical and safety implications of applying different speed
limits for various vehicle types, speed is a prime contributor to vehicle lateral
movement and should be considered when determining route access;
3) Limited lateral position information suggested that one driver of two vehicle types
position the vehicles so that the tyres on the rear trailer track on the sealed
pavement and not on the pavement shoulder;
4) Based on a statistical analysis of the data obtained from the small sample which
only considered the average crossfall of each test section the relative importance of
the key parameters was (highest to lowest), IRI, vehicle speed and vehicle type.
It was shown that good estimates of lateral movement can be obtained using a double
integration technique of the measured lateral acceleration, without applying
compensation for the trailer roll or the pavement crossfall.
It is recommended that route access guidelines be developed using the lateral
performance of a larger sample of vehicles in each class of heavy vehicles operating
over a larger range of road types. The route access guidelines should contain a matrix
of information on vehicle type/length, pavement condition roughness/profile and lane
width. This would provide operators and regulators with a desk-top assessment tool for
determining route access.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216673 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | George, Rodney Martin, rod.george@arrb.com.au |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright Rodney Martin George |
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