Trucks with road friendly suspension (RFS) but with ineffective shock absorbers can damage roads more than trucks with steel suspensions. The two measurements used to show that heavy vehicle suspensions are road friendly are the damping ratio and the damped free vibration frequency. This paper expands on previous work by the authors and describes two low cost testing methods to determine shock absorber health using an on-board mass measurement system. These tests involved the simple processes of driving over a 48 mm pipe and driving the vehicle over normal, uneven roads. On-board mass measurement systems are increasingly prevalent on the heavy vehicle fleet but their use is primarily for fleet management purposes or jurisdictional monitoring. More value could be derived from on-board mass measurement systems by using them to determine the health of road-friendly suspensions. This might be achieved without the expense and inconvenience of taking the truck off the road for testing. By the use of a few simple analytical tools, transport operators and fleet managers have an opportunity to monitor the health status of heavy vehicle suspensions. Hence both road and vehicle wear-and-tear could be minimised. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Samenvatting