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The sugarcane industry holds the second largest share of production value in the Brazilian agricultural sector, with Brazil responsible for more than 20% of the world’s production. Therefore, the increase of efficiency in the production process of sugarcane is an object of interest for producers, with transportation playing an important role in the process, both economically and environmentally. Intending to improve the efficiency in the transportation of sugarcane between cultivation and processing facilities, this work uses simulations to analyze safety aspects of a vehicle combination with 11 axles and 91ton capacity, new to the Brazilian transportation system. Several procedures were performed in a virtual environment to evaluate the vehicle longitudinal and lateral dynamics, including weight distribution, overtaking performance, rollover threshold, rearward amplification, braking and gradeability.

Brazil presents a very diverse road and traffic conditions and due to several factors the number of truck accidents is very high. Inside truck accidents group, the one that causes the highest number of losses and fatalities is the rollover crash and understanding rollover dynamics is very important to prevent such events. The diversity of cargo vehicles arrangements requires a detailed study regarding the dynamic behavior these vehicle combinations in order to increase operation safety. The same tractor unit can be used with different types and numbers of trailers and/or semi-trailers, each one with different suspension configurations. These truck combinations have distinct dynamic performances that need evaluation. In this sense, this work presents a first phase study on the dynamic behavior of different types of cargo vehicle configuration. A 6×2 tractor is combined with a two distinct grain semi-trailer with different types of suspension: pneumatic and leaf spring.

This paper discusses the benefits of truck simulation for ride and handling tuning at product development. Virtual simulation can guide the conception of new vehicles to a better "first guess" of dynamics characteristics, providing calibrated options to define parameters for springs, dampers and anti-roll bars, closer to the desired condition. TruckSim™, from Mechanical Simulation, was the chosen software due to its user-friendly interface, fast modeling and post-processing that matches with challenging product time-to-market. The scope of analysis is to evaluate/compare virtual results against subjective/objective tests on real prototypes, in order to proof software correlativity. The first step was to develop the vehicle model, using 3D CAD models information, data acquired from real prototypes and product specifications. The chosen vehicle was a 9-ton 4X2 rigid truck.

Due to the practice of lifting the rear suspension of heavy trucks, adopted by some end-users in Brazil, and in order to supply theoretical propositions to the manufacturers of suspension components for product improvement, this work describes stability and lateral dynamics tests simulations of a 4×2 rigid truck with 15000 kg of gross vehicle weight (GVW) and with changes in its originals leaf springs, predicting its dynamics responses in cornering and safety against rollover when unloaded and loaded at its GVWR limit.