Accelerated fatigue testing on special tracks as new part of methodology for bus/trolleybus development

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, the Research and Testing Institute in Pilsen (former SKODA Research Company) has been developing a methodology of computational and experimental investigation of strength and fatigue life of bodies of road vehicles for mass passenger transport. The methodology includes multibody dynamic simulations, FEM stress analysis, test bench testing and stress measurement during the service of a prototype vehicle aiming the evaluation of data about its fatigue life. The first presented case study demonstrates an example of using the methodology in the design stage of a trolleybus. There is a bus manufacturer that plans to include accelerated fatigue testing on special test tracks as a final test to demonstrate a satisfactory operational fatigue life of the vehicle in a shorter time. In real urban traffic and on the test circuit, extensive stress measurements on a number of structural details and components have been carried out and analysed. In collaboration with the Regional Technological Institute, which is the research centre of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of West Bohemia, fatigue life was calculated for critical structural details and components of various parts of the bus. Based on these calculations, the development potential was assessed and planning of accelerated tests on proving grounds was considered.