Transport efficiencies could be improved if new configurations of heavy vehicles were allowed greater access to the road network without compromising safety. Current methods of determining suitable routes for combination vehicles do not consider individual vehicle performance. This study was undertaken to: (1) develop an understanding of the road space requirements (trailing fidelity) of a number of combination vehicles as they travelled over a variety of road profiles; (2) provide information to develop guidelines for determining suitable routes for combination vehicles. Computer models were developed and simulations were conducted with the vehicles travelling over representations of real roads at three speeds - using measured road profiles as an input to the simulation. These simulations predicted the lateral movement of the last trailer of the combination vehicle. Outputs were compared with full-scale test data. Outputs from the simulations showed that the road roughness and cross-slope had a major influence on vehicle trailing fidelity performance. The outputs from the simulations are reported together with concepts of assessing the suitability of combination vehicles to use a road with a given roughness profile, using vehicle performance as a method of determining access to the road network. (A)
Abstract