Are Longer and Heavier Vehicles (LHVs) Beneficial for Society? A Cost Benefit Analysis to Evaluate their Potential Implementation in Spain

Abstract

In this paper we carry out a thorough review of the current research related to the benefits and costs arising from the implementation of longer and heavier vehicles (LHVs). From this review we concluded that despite the many studies available, little has been said about the sensitivity of the benefits and costs to the ultimate performance of the key variables related to the evolution of the economy, road transport performance, safety, and so on. In order to fill this gap, we have designed a sensitivity approach based on a cost benefit analysis tool to determine which variables demonstrate the greatest influence on the benefits and costs stemming from the implementation of LHVs. In order to test the methodology, we have used it in an analysis of the Spanish trunk network. The results show that the benefits of LHVs for society are significant. Even in the least favorable scenario, the economic benefits are greater than €3500 million over 15 years, and the environment enhanced as well, for CO₂ emissions are reduced by 2 Million tonnes. Overall we noted how the results are not very sensitive to the evolution of key variables in determining the final outcome. However, we found that the variables that have the greatest affect on the final benefit, such as traffic growth and social discount rate, depend basically on the performance of the overall economy. Moreover, the private cost for haulers seems to be more important in determining the final benefit than externality costs.     

某重型商用车的车架结构优化设计

以某重型牵引车车架为研究对象,建立了该型车架的有限元模型,进行了车架模态的仿真与试验,并将结果进行了对比分析,验证了有限元模型的准确性;根据重型牵引车的承载特点和行驶工况,对该车架在满载弯曲工况和满载扭转工况进行静态应力分析,考察车架在典型工况下的应力分布,以此评价车架设计的合理性。在此基础上,对车架的连接横梁进行了结构优化,对改进方案进行了有限元分析,并通过DOE分析确定了最优方案。通过车架结构优化设计及工程实践,反映了利用有限元法进行车架的设计和分析,具有精确可靠、周期短、费用低的优势,显示出了广泛的应用前景。     

车辆荷载和车道荷载对桥梁结构可靠度的影响

公路桥梁结构的整体计算采用车道荷载,结构的局部计算采用车辆荷载,车辆荷载与车道荷载的作用不得叠加.将采用这2种荷载设计的结构进行可靠度对比,结果表明,按车辆荷载设计的结构满足正常使用功能的可靠度偏低,更容易发生损坏,这些损坏会影响到结构的正常使用.提出通过调整重型车辆通过桥梁时的交通行驶规则,增大结构按正常使用极限状态设计时车辆荷载的代表值,从而提高按车辆荷载设计的结构可靠度.     

CFD技术在重卡领域的应用综述

近年来,随着计算机软硬件技术的迅速发展,蓬勃兴起的计算流体力学(CFD-ComputationalFluid Dynamics)为汽车性能设计开辟了一条新的途径。CFD软件也逐渐大量应用于重卡设计过程中。本文详细介绍了目前国内外应用最为广泛的几大商业CFD软件以及在重卡领域的应用。     

A closed-loop dynamic simulation-based design method for articulated heavy vehicles with active trailer steering systems

This paper presents a closed-loop dynamic simulation-based design method for articulated heavy vehicles (AHVs) with active trailer steering (ATS) systems. AHVs have poor manoeuvrability at low speeds and exhibit low lateral stability at high speeds. From the design point of view, there exists a trade-off relationship between AHVs’ manoeuvrability and stability. For example, fewer articulation points and longer wheelbases will improve high-speed lateral stability, but they will degrade low-speed manoeuvrability. To tackle this conflicting design problem, a systematic method is proposed for the design of AHVs with ATS systems. In order to evaluate vehicle performance measures under a well-defined testing manoeuvre, a driver model is introduced and it ‘drivers’ the vehicle model to follow a prescribed route at a given speed. Considering the interactions between the mechanical trailer and the ATS system, the proposed design method simultaneously optimises the active design variables of the controllers and passive design variables of the trailer in a single design loop (SDL). Through the design optimisation of an ATS system for an AHV with a truck and a drawbar trailer combination, this SDL method is compared against a published two design loop method. The benchmark investigation shows that the former can determine better trade-off design solutions than those derived by the latter. This SDL method provides an effective approach to automatically implement the design synthesis of AHVs with ATS systems.     

Design of safety-oriented control allocation strategies for overactuated electric vehicles

The new vehicle platforms for electric vehicles (EVs) that are becoming available are characterised by actuator redundancy, which makes it possible to jointly optimise different aspects of the vehicle motion. To do this, high-level control objectives are first specified and solved with appropriate control strategies. Then, the resulting virtual control action must be translated into actual actuator commands by a control allocation layer that takes care of computing the forces to be applied at the wheels. This step, in general, is quite demanding as far as computational complexity is considered. In this work, a safety-oriented approach to this problem is proposed. Specifically, a four-wheel steer EV with four in-wheel motors is considered, and the high-level motion controller is designed within a sliding mode framework with conditional integrators. For distributing the forces among the tyres, two control allocation approaches are investigated. The first, based on the extension of the cascading generalised inverse method, is computationally efficient but shows some limitations in dealing with unfeasible force values. To solve the problem, a second allocation algorithm is proposed, which relies on the linearisation of the tyre–road friction constraints. Extensive tests, carried out in the CarSim simulation environment, demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Models and methodology for optimal trajectory generation in safety-critical road–vehicle manoeuvres

There is currently a strongly growing interest in obtaining optimal control solutions for vehicle manoeuvres, both in order to understand optimal vehicle behaviour and, perhaps more importantly, to devise improved safety systems, either by direct deployment of the solutions or by including mimicked driving techniques of professional drivers. However, it is non-trivial to find the right combination of models, optimisation criteria, and optimisation tools to get useful results for the above purposes. Here, a platform for investigation of these aspects is developed based on a state-of-the-art optimisation tool together with adoption of existing vehicle chassis and tyre models. A minimum-time optimisation criterion is chosen for the purpose of gaining an insight into at-the-limit manoeuvres, with the overall aim of finding improved fundamental principles for future active safety systems. The proposed method to trajectory generation is evaluated in time-manoeuvres using vehicle models established in the literature. We determine the optimal control solutions for three manoeuvres using tyre and chassis models of different complexities. The results are extensively analysed and discussed. Our main conclusion is that the tyre model has a fundamental influence on the resulting control inputs. Also, for some combinations of chassis and tyre models, inherently different behaviour is obtained. However, certain variables important in vehicle safety-systems, such as the yaw moment and the body-slip angle, are similar for several of the considered model configurations in aggressive manoeuvring situations.     

弹性需求下高速公路超限补偿费率优化模型

为了准确刻画超限需求弹性对补偿费率的影响,从用户和系统的角度分别对超限运输的收益和成本进行分析和建模,构造超限运输弹性需求函数,反映超限运输需求量与其运输效益之间的变化关系,将超限运输业者运输行为的选择归结为弹性需求下的用户均衡配流问题,进而利用高速公路管理者与超限运输业者之间的Stackelberg博弈关系,建立了基于弹性需求的高速公路超限补偿费率的双层规划优化模型,并设计了基于模拟退火算法求解的优化算法。结果表明：模型能较好地优化超限补偿费率,使之对超限运输业者进行合理补偿收费和适度惩罚,有效遏制超限运输,从而产生更大的社会与经济效益。     

铁路重载货车转向架技术应用探究

铁路重载货车转向架为铁路重载运输提供保障.由于铁路重载货车的重载质量不断增加,运行的速度越来越快速,从而造成了轮轨的损坏,这就需要加强对转向架技术的深入研究.对我国铁路重载货车转向架技术发展的历程进行阐述,详细分析了铁路重载货车转向架技术的应用,并对铁路重载货车转向架的发展趋势进行阐述.     

“1+X”证书制度下的汽车检测与维修专业“三教”存在问题研究

在教学过程中,师资,教材,教法是基本内容,教学质量指标也受到影响。本文以新能汽车检验维修专业为例,对职教二十条进行了分析。职业教育三教一体化改革的重要性,同时,针对教师,教材和教学方法等问题提出了切实可行的改革思路,仅供相关人员参考。