The Dynamic Interaction between Vehicles and Infrastructure Experiment (DIVINE) Project provides scientific evidence of the dynamic effects of heavy vehicles and their suspension systems on pavements and bridges in support of transport policy decisions that affect infrastructure and road freight transport costs. It follows a 1992 OECD Expert Group which recommended international research co-operation aimed at determining the true significance of vehicle dynamics for pavement life and costs and at providing vehicle assessment methods. Six separate Research Elements were established in DIVINE to investigate all aspects of vehicle-infrastructure interaction. In total, 17 countries and the European Commission contributed to the research project. The policy implications of the research findings are discussed in a separate report, Dynamic Interaction between Vehicles and Infrastructure Experiment: Policy Implications (pending). This technical report concludes that pavement wear under steel suspensions is at least 15 per cent faster than under air suspensions and that the concentration of dynamic loads for air suspensions is only about half the magnitude of that for steel suspensions. It shows that road simulators can replicate dynamic wheel loads measured on the road. The report identifies the essential properties of road-friendly suspensions as low spring stiffness, very low Coulomb friction and an appropriate level of viscous damping. Such properties are to be found in well-designed and well-maintained air suspensions and it is unlikely that steel spring suspensions could achieve the desired level of performance. The report also reveals that the surface profile of a bridge and its approaches are fundamental to the response of the truck suspension and in turn the dynamic response of the bridge. For a smooth profile, the influence of the truck suspension is insignificant; its importance increases as the unevenness of the profile increases. (Author/publisher) For the policy report see C 12942 S.
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