Use of a force measuring mat to compare the road damaging potential of heavy vehicles

A portable mat for measuring the dynamic tyre forces of commercial vehicles is described. The mat is 56 mm long, 13 mm thick and has 141 capacitative strip sensors, spaced at 0.4 m intervals. Preliminary results of tests on three articulated commercial vehicles (two axle with steel suspension; two axle with air suspension; three axle with steel suspension) are presented. Fourteen of the fifteen possible combinations of tractor and trailer were tested. Each vehicle was fully laden and driven over the mat about 50 times at speeds between 2 m/s and 27 m/s. It is concluded that the road damaging potential of vehicle suspensions should be assessed by considering the whole vehicle. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 852196.

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