Title: Simulation of the dynamic characteristics of a fork lift truck travelling over an obstacle

Authors: G. Lovat, P. Mistrot, P. Donati, P. Boulanger, B. Schuler

Addresses: Institut National de Recherche et de Securite (INRS), Avenue de Bourgogne, BP 27, 54501 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France. ' Institut National de Recherche et de Securite (INRS), Avenue de Bourgogne, BP 27, 54501 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France. ' Institut National de Recherche et de Securite (INRS), Avenue de Bourgogne, BP 27, 54501 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France. ' Institut National de Recherche et de Securite (INRS), Avenue de Bourgogne, BP 27, 54501 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France. ' Institut National de Recherche et de Securite (INRS), Avenue de Bourgogne, BP 27, 54501 Vandoeuvre Cedex, France

Abstract: In 1996, the EC Machinery Directive came into force. Under this directive, vehicle manufacturers are required to improve the safety of their products in taking into account all the available technical progress and to provide an information on the emitted vibration. In order to design machines and to know, roughly at this stage, the emission values to declare, a model of a truck and its tyres able to predict the dynamic response at the driver workplace in standardised conditions is a very useful tool. INRS initiated studies to develop such a model, which is used at present in two projects: the development of a low-frequency suspension cab, and the preparation of a vibration test code. This paper reports the methodology which was elaborated to build up this model. Firstly, the tyres behaviour was modelled separately and experimentally validated using a specifically designed single wheel vehicle. The whole truck was then modelled using a software for multi-body solids. Significant agreement was found to exist between the model predictions and the experimental results, provided the test conditions were not too far from those which were used to elaborate the model of the tyres. Further research is currently being carried out, especially with regard to tyre behaviour to extend the validity of the model over an extensive range of conditions.

Keywords: computer simulation; fork lift trucks; tyres; vibration; tyre behaviour; vehicle safety; fork lift truck design; multibody dynamics; low-frequency suspension cab; obstacles; modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1997.054586

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1997 Vol.4 No.2/3/4, pp.183 - 203

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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