Dynamic Response of a Road Bridge Subjected to Passing a Heavy Vehicle over a Standard Irregularity - Numerical Modelling and Experimental Testing

The paper presents an analysis of an actual problem related to dynamic effects to road bridges due to travelling a heavy vehicle over the bridge. Numerical simulations of the dynamic response are applied on a fictitious simple beam of the length Lb = 52 m with an artificial irregularity at midspan, corresponding to a characteristic span L (b5) = 52 m of the ten-span continuous box girder bridge. A heavy four-axle truck m v = 32 t is used for dynamic excitation, travelling over the bridge at passing speed of 70km / h. The obtained results are compared to results of the experimentally tested ten-span continuous pre-stressed reinforced concrete girder bridge at the same speed.

Development Of Via Baltica In Lithuania

The total length of Via Baltica corridor, which consists of five roads (A5 Kaunas–Marijampolė–Suwałki, A1 Vilnius–Kaunas–Klaipėda; A8 Panevėžys–Aristava–Sitkūnai, A17 Panevėžys bypass and A10 Panevėžys–Pasvalys–Riga) makes up 268 km on the Lithuanian territory. In 2019 the highest traffic volumes on this corridor were 55,942 veh/day. It is the highest-volume heavy vehicle road carrying the greatest loads. Via Baltica is a transit road; therefore, it shall comply to the requirements set to high quality roads. In 2020-2030 it is planned to implement 9 projects, the total value of which is ca 704 million EUR (194.18 km to be reconstructed). Until 2018 having implemented 156 million EUR projects, Via Baltica road A5 Kaunas–Marijampolė–Suwałki 17.24–56.83 km section (from Kaunas to Marijampole) was reconstructed into a motorway until the end of 2018. Currently, preparations are made for Via Baltica reconstruction from Marijampole to the Lithuanian-Polish border (A5 road from 56.83 km to 97.06 km). Strategic Environmental Assessment has already been completed and a special territorial planning document has been approved by the Lithuanian Government. According to this document, the road section shall be widened up to four traffic lanes by constructing two safe grade-separated intersections (viaducts) and roundabouts, connecting roads, a new heavy vehicle parking lot, by widening the existing bridges, by building new bridges and by implementing various environmental protection measures. At present design works of the above-mentioned 40.23 km-long-road section are underway. The works are due to be completed by the end of 2025.

Characteristics of Heavy Vehicle Discretionary Lane Changing Based on Trajectory Data

A comprehensive analysis of the motivations, gap acceptance, duration, and speed adjustment of heavy vehicle lane changes (LC) is conducted in this paper. An rich data set containing 433 discretionary LC trajectories of heavy vehicles is used in this study and the data set is divided into two data sets based on the LC direction (LC to the left lane [LCLL] and LC to the right lane [LCRL]) for comparison. It is seen that LCLL and LCRL have significantly different motivations, which also results in different gap acceptance behavior. However, the LC direction does not significantly influence the LC duration. The navigation speed significantly influences the LC duration of heavy vehicles and the LC duration will decrease with the increase of speed, indicating the substantial impact of traffic conditions on LC duration. An obvious speed synchronization phenomenon is found in the process of LCLL, which is not the case in LCRL. The results of this study highlight the distinct characteristics of the LC of heavy vehicles and produce a better understanding of the lane-changing behaviors of heavy vehicles. The fitted distributions of LC duration and further investigation into gap acceptance behaviors may be used for microscopic traffic simulation and auto driving.

Remanufacturing in the Heavy Vehicle Industry—Case Study of a Finnish Machine Manufacturer

This study analyses remanufacturing operations of a Finnish heavy vehicle manufacturer with global operations. The company has remanufactured and refurbished certain components for a decade in a centralised remanufacturing and recycling centre in Finland, but it has encountered significant challenges, especially in reverse logistics. The company considers regional remanufacturing to decrease these disadvantages. The purpose of this study is to analyse the characteristics, challenges and benefits of regional remanufacturing by reviewing the relevant literature and analysing the empirical data, including a survey for international subsidiaries of the case company to determine regional needs. As a result, we have identified significant benefits, especially related to minimised logistics costs and better availability of the components, but also challenges, such as lack of resources, and insufficient economies of scale.

Predicting the Collisions of Heavy Vehicle Drivers in Iran by Investigating the Effective Human Factors

Traffic collisions are one of the most important challenges threatening the general health of the world. Iran’s crash statistics demonstrate that approximately 16,500 people lose their lives every year due to road collisions. According to the traffic police of Iran, heavy vehicles (including trailers, trucks, and panel trucks) contributed to 20.5% of the fatal road traffic collisions in the year 2013. This highlights the need for devoting special attention to heavy vehicle drivers to further explore their driving characteristics. In this research, the effect of heavy vehicle drivers’ behavior on at-fault collisions over three years has been investigated with an innovative approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) and Bayesian Network (BN). The database utilized in this research was collected using a questionnaire. For this purpose, 474 heavy vehicle drivers have been questioned in the Parviz Khan Border Market, located on the border of Iran and Iraq. The response rate of the survey was 80%. The participants answered the questions on Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) and a sleep assessing questionnaire named Global Dissatisfaction with Sleep (GSD). In this research, human factors affecting at-fault collisions of heavy vehicles were identified and their relationships with other variables were determined using the SEM approach. Then the descriptive model constructed by the SEM method was used as the basis of the BN, and the conditional probabilities of each node in the BN were calculated by the database collected by the field survey. SEM indicates that other attributes including GSD, mobile usage, daily fatigue, exposure, and education level have an indirect relation with heavy vehicle drivers’ at-fault collisions. According to the BN, if there is no information about the characteristics of a heavy vehicle driver, the driver will likely have at least one collision during the next three years with the probability of 0.17. Also, it was indicated that the minimum probability of the at-fault collision occurrence for a heavy vehicle is 0.08.

P133 Backward Rotating Shifts are Associated with Real-Time Drowsiness During Daytime Drives in Heavy Vehicle Drivers

Purpose While 10–20% of heavy vehicle crashes (HVDs) are drowsiness-related, the contributions of subsequent shifts to chronic drowsiness in HVDs is largely unknown. Eye-blink parameters indicate driver drowsiness reliably. This study examined the association of consecutive shifts and real-time drowsiness in HVDs. Methods Habitual sleep-wake of HVDs (all males, aged 49.5 ± 8 years) was monitored objectively (Philips Actiwatch, N=15) for 5 weeks (5.75± 1.4 hours). Johns Drowsiness Score (JDS, a composite eye-blink parameter in one-min intervals) was monitored for 4 weeks in HVDs (N=14) using an infrared oculography (Optalert, Melbourne, Australia) device. We assessed the association of drowsiness events (JDS equal or larger than 2.6) with consecutive shift types via mixed linear regression models. Results Eigth consecutive shifts increased drowsiness by 1.06 times compared to 2 shifts (8.37 events/h vs 6.77 events/h, P= 0.03). Consecutive shift sequences included afternoons (9%), mornings (29%), nights (5%), mixed rotating shifts (28%), forward-rotating shifts (11%) and backward-rotating shifts (12%). Drowsiness event rates were 1.23 times greater during night consecutive shifts relative to afternoon shifts (8.37 events/h vs 6.67 events/h, P= 0.03). Backward-rotating shifts (morning-night-evening- afternoon) elevated daytime drowsiness between 10 am and 3 pm by 1.55 times (10.01 events/h vs 6.47 events/h, P= 0.016). Conclusions Regardless of the number of consecutive shifts, sequential night shifts increase real-time drowsiness in HVDs, with backward rotating shifts resulting in higher rates of drowsiness events during daytime. The interaction of schedule features should inform the work scheduling of HVDs to reduce the risk of drowsiness.

CRUSH CHARACTERISTICS OF ADHESIVELY BONDED COMPOSITE-ALUMINUM TUBES

Tubular members are used in the automotive industry for body, chassis, and powertrain components such as front rails, underbody frames or sub frames, driveshaft structures and space frames. They are also extensively used in buses and other heavy vehicle structures. With focus on light-weighting, there is increasing use of multimaterial structures with aluminum and high-performance composites. Joining a variety of materials with different characteristics and compositions is a major challenge for the design of such structures. Hence, adhesive bonding is emerging as one of the key joining technique for multi-material structures due to their compatibility with commonly used lightweight materials. Since tubular joints in automotive structures may experience crush type load, this study considers the crush characteristics of composite-aluminum tubular adhesive joints using finite element analysis.