Abstract
The wheel force transducer (WFT), which measures the force or torque applied to the wheel, is an important instrument in vehicle testing field and has been extremely promoted by researchers. Since the high cost and technical secret of the commercial products may slow down the development of WFT to some extent, Southeast University has devoted to the WFT research with some prototypes. Essentially, the WFT is a multi-axis force sensor (MFS) in which an elastic-body will deform under the applied forces. However, when applying a MFS into vehicle wheel and making it to be a WFT, it may be subjected to forces/moments which exceed the measuring range under the over rated load, especially on a heavy truck WFT under loads of X or Z direction. Plastic deformation and damage may occur on the elastic-body of WFT. This paper presents a mechanical approach of the overload protection mechanism which can prevent the overload damage and guarantee the sensor performance. An intermediate flange, which is elaborately designed using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools, is installed between wheel hub and the elastic body to meet the overload protection. Experiment and prototyping test are conducted on the hydraulic platform. Results show that the proposed overload protection mechanism performs well. In particular, the applied loads over ±120 kN and ±30 kNm are prevented from damage for the heavy truck WFT. Key words: Wheel force transducer, overload protection mechanism, vehicle wheels/typres, heavy duty trucks.
Highlights
When the vehicle is moving on the road, three-axial forces of longitudinal force Fx, lateral force Fy, vertical force Fz, and three-axis torques of heeling moment Mx, twist torque My, and aligning torque Mz, are applied to the wheel
No more exotic material is required and it maintains the merit of economy, practicability and reliability. This paper presents such an overload protection mechanism that a mechanical approach is performed on a heavy truck wheel force transducer (WFT)
When each load increases in the measurement range individually, the AD output signal of the main channel shows linearity but the rest of that are close to the initial value 3000
Summary
When the vehicle is moving on the road, three-axial forces of longitudinal force Fx, lateral force Fy, vertical force Fz, and three-axis torques of heeling moment Mx, twist torque My, and aligning torque Mz, are applied to the wheel. The interaction between the vehicle and ground is represented by the forces, and sensing the wheel forces/torques is quite significant in vehicle testing field (Kadhim et al, 2011; Kuchler and Schrupp, 2001; Pavkovic et al, 2009; Pytka et al, 2011). To detect these forces, the famous multi-axis wheel force transducer (WFT) (Weiblen et al, 1999), which offers the capability of acquiring load data at the spindle of a vehicle, has been promoted extremely by researchers and engineers with great interests (Hong and Strumpfer, 2011; Zhang et al, 2011).
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