Reducing Electrical Consumption in Stationary Long-Haul Trucks

On average, long-haul trucks in the U.S. use approximately 667 million gallons of fuel each year just for idling. This idling primarily facilitates climate control operations during driver rest periods. To mitigate this, our study explored ways to diminish the electrical consumption of climate control systems in class 8 trucks through innovative load reduction technologies. We utilized the CoolCalc software, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which integrates heat transfer principles with extensive weather data from across the U.S. to mimic the environmental conditions trucks face year-round. The analysis of the CoolCalc simulations was performed using MATLAB. We assessed the impact of various technologies, including white paint, advanced curtains, and Thinsulate insulation on reducing electrical demand compared to standard conditions. Our findings indicate that trucks operating in the eastern U.S. could see electrical load reductions of up to 40%, while those in the western regions could achieve reductions as high as 55%. Such significant decreases in energy consumption mean that a 10 kWh battery system could sufficiently manage the HVAC needs of these trucks throughout the year without idling. Given that many long-haul trucks are equipped with battery systems of around 800 Ah (9.6 kWh), implementing these advanced technologies could substantially curtail the necessity for idling to power air conditioning systems.

Real-Time Co-optimization of Gear Shifting and Engine Torque for Predictive Cruise Control of Heavy-Duty Trucks

Fuel consumption is one of the main concerns for heavy-duty trucks.Predictive cruise control(PCC)provides an intriguing opportunity to reduce fuel consumption by using the upcoming road information.In this study,a real-time implementable PCC,which simultaneously optimizes engine torque and gear shifting,is proposed for heavy-duty trucks.To minimize fuel consumption,the problem of the PCC is formulated as a nonlinear model predictive control(MPC),in which the upcoming road elevation information is used.Finding the solution of the nonlinear MPC is time consuming;thus,a real-time implementable solver is developed based on Pontryagin’s maximum principle and indirect shooting method.Dynamic programming(DP)algorithm,as a global optimization algorithm,is used as a performance benchmark for the proposed solver.Simulation,hardware-in-the-loop and real-truck experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed controller.The results demonstrate that the MPC-based solution performs nearly as well as the DP-based solution,with less than 1%deviation for testing roads.Moreover,the proposed co-optimization controller is implementable in a real-truck,and the proposed MPC-based PCC algorithm achieves a fuel-saving rate of 7.9%without compromising the truck’s travel time.

A Predictive Energy Management Strategies for Mining Dump Trucks

The plug-in hybrid vehicles(PHEV)technology can effectively address the issues of poor dynamics and higher energy consumption commonly found in traditional mining dump trucks.Meanwhile,plug-in hybrid electric trucks can achieve excellent fuel economy through efficient energy management strategies(EMS).Therefore,a series hybrid system is constructed based on a 100-ton mining dump truck in this paper.And inspired by the dynamic programming(DP)algorithm,a predictive equivalent consumption minimization strategy(P-ECMS)based on the DP optimization result is proposed.Based on the optimal control manifold and the SOC reference trajectory obtained by the DP algorithm,the P-ECMS strategy performs real-time stage parameter optimization to obtain the optimal equivalent factor(EF).Finally,applying the equivalent consumption minimization strategy(ECMS)realizes real-time control.The simulation results show that the equivalent fuel consumption of the P-ECMS strategy under the experimentally collected mining cycle conditions is 150.8 L/100 km,which is 10.9%less than that of the common CDCS strategy(169.3 L/100 km),and achieves 99.47%of the fuel saving effect of the DP strategy(150 L/100 km).

Cycle Time Analysis of Open Pit Mining Dump Trucks

This study demonstrates a practical cycle time analysis of dump truck haulage system of “Ukhaa Khudag” open-pit coal mine located in Umnugobi Province, Mongolia. It examines the possibility of minimizing the cycle time of the haulage system as well as factors impacting the speed of the dump truck. The current study divides the open pit mine road for the dump trucks into five sections which are bench road, ramp, surface road, dump road uphill, and dump road. Meanwhile, it investigates the influence of the length, the grade, and the rolling resistance of the road section on the cycle time. The data is analyzed using mathematical regression methods via Microsoft Excel program. For each of the five road sections, we compare the statistical calculations of three regression models: linear, quadratic and exponential;thus, a total of thirty regression models are obtained in this research. Accordingly, the cycle time for each road section is predicted by the most accountable model. The loaded and empty direction of the movement is measured and calculated for each road section, and it appears that the difference between the calculated mean value and the actual cycle time of the models is 0.82 seconds with a relative error of 2.51 percent.

Design and Optimization of New Smoke Exhaust Pipe for Mining Trucks

In order to improve the maintenance efficiency,extend the use time,ensure that the exhaust emission meets the standard,forthe 830E truck heating bucket exhaust pipe design defects,the current single smoke exhaust system is transformed into atime period,convertible smoke exhaust system.After the transformation,it can not only realize the side row to prevent direct corrosion of the box bucket in summer,but also realize the heating of the box bucket at low temperature in winter to prevent snow and ice and frozen blocks from sticking to the box bucket and the materials transported.After the transformation can save a lot of manpower,material resources,financial resources,improve the service life.

Performance evaluation of near real-time condition monitoring in haul trucks

Strategic maintenance plays a key role in ensuring high availability and utilization of the haul trucks,and as equipment began to grow more complex towards the end of the 20th century,there was a need for a proactive maintenance strategy,which led to the development of condition-based maintenance.Realtime condition monitoring(RTCM)is the ability to perform condition monitoring in real-time and has the ability to alert maintenance and operations of abnormal conditions.These alarms can be used as an indication leading to a problem,and if a suitable corrective action is initiated in time,it could result in significant savings of equipment downtime and repair costs.This study aims to compare some maintenance performance indicators prior to and after implementation of RTCM strategy at a mine site using some tests of statistical significance.The study also indicated the presence of seasonality in the data,and thus the data was deseasonalized and detrended prior to being subjected to the statistical tests.Finally,the results indicated that RTCM strategy has proven to be successful in improving the availability for some of the failure categories chosen in this study.

Evaluation of the Impact of Queue Trucks with Navigation Alerts Using Connected Vehicle Data

Back of queue crashes on Interstates are a major concern for all state transportation departments. In 2020, Indiana DOT begin deploying queue warning trucks with message boards, flashers and digital alerts that could be transmitted to navigation systems such as Waze. This study reports on the deployment and impact evaluation of digital alerts on motorist’s assistance patrols and 19 Queue trucks in Indiana. The motorist assistance patrol evaluation is provided qualitatively. A novel analysis of queue warning trucks equipped with digital alerts was conducted during the months of May-July in 2021 using connected vehicle data. This new data set reports locations of anonymous hard-braking events from connected vehicles on the Interstate. Hard-braking events were tabulated for when queueing occurred with and without the presence of a queue warning truck. Approximately 370 hours of queueing with queue trucks present and 58 hours of queueing without queue trucks present were evaluated. Hard-braking events were found to decrease approximately 80% when queue warning trucks were used to alert motorists of impending queues.

Dynamic Tradeoff of Forced Steering Motor Trucks

In this paper, the dynamic tradeoff of forced steering motor trucks is analyzed in detail. Some dynamic models are developed to analyze the nonlinear curving, lateral stability and stick slip vibration stability. The computed results show that forced steering motor trucks successfully solve the tradeoff problem among traction, steering and stability. Its comprehensive dynamic performance is excellent.

Trucks at Roundabouts: A Synthesis Study

Roundabouts in United States and other countries have been proved to be very successful, effective, and a safe traffic control treatment. Roundabouts in the context of regularly expected truck configuration have also been successful for effective roundabout designs;however, there are always some site specific issues for trucks accommodation at roundabouts. Therefore, there is a great need for an informational guide in the form of synthesis report for roundabout designs specific to unique trucking traffic activity. While there are not significant literatures and studies in this subject, there are few studies/reports spread out which address various issues in this subject area. This study attempts to synthesize the research and knowledge of truck accommodation at roundabouts by synthesizing various research studies, reports, and articles;various subject areas such as roundabout designs for trucking activity, roundabout designs and accommodation strategies for specialized trucking activity such as oversized trucks, truck safety at roundabouts, and motor carrier perspective of trucking at roundabouts have been analyzed and relevant knowledge has been synthesized. This synthesis can be useful o researchers, designers, planners, and decision makers to determine effective ways to address specific trucking related issues at a roundabout.

Health risk of whole body vibration in mining trucks during various operational conditions

Mining machineries are generally exposed to intensive vibrations in harsh mining environment. If vibrations are beyond the tolerable limit, the machine and its operator health will be under the risk. In this work, the vibration of a mining truck at different operational conditions are simulated and discussed. To achieve this aim, three haul roads with low, medium and poor qualities are considered based on the ISO standard. Accordingly, the vibration of a mining truck in different speeds, payload and distribution qualities of materials in the dump body are evaluated in each haul road quality using Trucksim software. The simulation results with statistical discussions indicate that the truck speed and the materials distribution quality have significant effects on the root mean square(RMS) of vertical vibrations. However, the effect of the payload is not considerable on the RMS. Moreover, the accumulation of materials on the rear side of the truck dump body is efficient on the vibrational health risk.

A CFD Study Investigating Drag Reduction for Different Offset and Inline Distance for Two Trucks Platooning

The automotive industry invests huge resources to improve fuel consumption of commercial vehicles by improving their aerodynamic efficiency.Recently,numerous studies investigating the effect of platooning on aerodynamic drag of semi-trucks have been performed by researchers indicating a positive impact.For the present study,a three-dimensional computational study was performed to investigate the effect of varying offset and linear distance during platooning on the total drag of two semi-trucks.The study was conducted on a full-scale model using Reynold’s Averaged Navier-Strokes governing equations for a moving ground simulation using the STAR-CCM+computational package.Furthermore,for turbulence,the standard k-ω SST turbulence model was used for a constant free stream velocity of 70 mph.A baseline study on a full-scale model of a single semi-truck was conducted to compare the results from platooning.Initial findings showed that the inline platooning situation was optimal for drag reduction.However,drag reduction varied with varying offset distances.Drag reduction decreased as the offset distance increased.

A Novel Integrated Stability Control Based on Differential Braking and Active Steering for Four-axle Trucks

Di erential braking and active steering have already been integrated to overcome their shortcomings. However, existing research mainly focuses on two-axle vehicles and controllers are mostly designed to use one control method to improve the other. Moreover, many experiments are needed to improve the robustness; therefore, these control methods are underutilized. This paper proposes an integrated control system specially designed for multi-axle vehicles, in which the desired lateral force and yaw moment of vehicles are determined by the sliding mode control algorithm. The output of the sliding mode control is distributed to the suitable wheels based on the abilities and potentials of the two control methods. Moreover, in this method, fewer experiments are needed, and the robustness and simultaneity are both guaranteed. To simplify the optimization system and to improve the computation speed, seven simple optimization subsystems are designed for the determination of control outputs on each wheel. The simulation results show that the proposed controller obviously enhances the stability of multi-axle trucks. The system improves 68% of the safe velocity, and its performance is much better than both di erential braking and active steering. This research proposes an integrated control system that can simultaneously invoke di erential braking and active steering of multi-axle vehicles to fully utilize the abilities and potentials of the two control methods.

Relation of the infrasound characteristics and the continuous steel bridge vibration modes generated by the vibration of moving heavy trucks

As heavy trucks pass over highway bridges, bridge vibration occurs and generates infrasound. General trucks in Japan with rear leaf suspension have whole body vibration （suspension spring vibration） frequencies of about 3 Hz. Also, the frequencies of the wheel vibration （tire spring vibration） are about 10-20 Hz. The continuous steel highway bridges with middle span length have vibration modes with the same phase in each span at the frequencies of about 3 Hz and also have those with the secondary mode shape at the frequencies of about 10-20 Hz. Truck vibrations and bridge vibrations are closely related. In this work, vibration tests are conducted using a heavy test truck for two cases of infrasound complaints in order to investigate the relation between the continuous steel bridge vibration modes generated by the vibration of moving heavy trucks and its infrasound characteristics. As a result of the examination, two types of bridge vibration modes are caused by the vibrations of a moving heavy truck. Moreover, the bending vi- bration modes with the same phase in each span have the most powerful infrasound pressure, since each span vibrates with the same phase. Two countermeasures, including viscoelastic damper at the end of the girders and extended deck method, are proposed to reduce the amplitude of bridge vibration and its infrasound.

Development of a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network model to determine haul trucks energy consumption

The mining industry annually consumes trillions of British thermal units of energy,a large part of which is saveable.Diesel fuel is a significant source of energy in surface mining operations and haul trucks are the major users of this energy source.Cross vehicle weight,truck velocity and total resistance have been recognised as the key parameters affecting the fuel consumption.In this paper,an artificial neural network model was developed to predict the fuel consumption of haul trucks in surface mines based on the gross vehicle weight,truck velocity and total resistance.The network was trained and tested using real data collected from a surface mining operation.The results indicate that the artificial neural network modelling can accurately predict haul truck fuel consumption based on the values of the haulage parameters considered in this study.

Vertical Tire Forces Estimation of Multi-Axle Trucks Based on an Adaptive Treble Extend Kalman Filter

Vertical tire forces are essential for vehicle modelling and dynamic control.However,an evaluation of the vertical tire forces on a multi-axle truck is difficult to accomplish.The current methods require a large amount of experimental data and many sensors owing to the wide variation of the parameters and the over-constraint.To simplify the design process and reduce the demand of the sensors,this paper presents a practical approach to estimating the vertical tire forces of a multi-axle truck for dynamic control.The estimation system is based on a novel vertical force model and a proposed adaptive treble extend Kalman filter(ATEKF).To adapt to the widely varying parameters,a sliding mode update is designed to make the ATEKF adaptive,and together with the use of an initial setting update and a vertical tire force adjustment,the overall system becomes more robust.In particular,the model aims to eliminate the effects of the over-constraint and the uneven weight distribution.The results show that the ATEKF method achieves an excellent performance in a vertical force evaluation,and its performance is better than that of the treble extend Kalman filter.

Investigation on Drag Reduction of Trucks

A study of the mechanism of fences was given to reduce drag by means of theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and experimental research.A 3D mathematical model has been developed based on com- putational fluid dynamics software Phoenics that was capable of handling steady state,3D flow to simulate the flow field around the truck.The experiment made in a low speed wind tunnel is used as references for validation.By analyzing the results of calculation and experiment,the flowing mechanism of the flow field around the container truck and the drag-reducing mechanism of #-shaped fences on the truck are unveiled, which provides theoretical guidance to the aerodynamic formation designing and amelioration.

Simulating Coupled Longitudinal, Pitch and Bounce Dynamics of Trucks with Flexible Frames

Simulating the dynamic response of trucks requires that a model be constructed and subjected to road inputs. Inclusion or omission of flexible frame effects is often based on intuition or assumption. If frame vibration is assumed to be significant, it is typically incorporated in one of two ways. Either a complex finite element model of the frame is used, or a simplified linear modal expansion model (which assumes small motions) is employed. The typical low-order modal expansion model, while computationally efficient and easier to use, is limited by the fact that 1) large rigid body motions and road grade changes are not supported, and 2) longitudinal dynamics are not coupled to vertical and bounce dynamics. In this paper, a bond graph model is presented which includes coupled pitch and bounce motions, longitudinal dynamics, and transverse frame vibration. Large rigid body motions are allowed, onto which small flexible vibrations are superimposed. Frame flexibility is incorporated using modal expansion of a free-free beam. The model allows for a complete pitch-plane representation in which motive forces can propel the truck forward over varying terrain, including hills. The effect of frame flexibility on vehicle dynamics can then be studied. This is an extension of the typical half-car model in which suspension motion is assumed vertical, pitch angles are small, and longitudinal dynamics are completely decoupled or omitted. Model output shows the effect of frame flexibility on vehicle responses such as forward velocity, pitch angle, and payload acceleration. Participation of individual modes can be seen to increase as road input approaches their natural frequency. The bond graph formalism allows for any or all flexible frame modes to be easily removed from the model if their effects are negligible, and for inclusion of more complex submodels for components such as suspension and engine if desired.

Application of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-Auxiliary Power Unit on Different Trucks in Northeast China

A diesel engine of conventional trucks has a low efficiency under the idling condition,leading to a high cost for heating or cooling in the cab during night. The solution to this problem will have great significance on energy conservation and emission reduction. A new auxiliary power unit of solid oxide fuel cell( SOFCAPU) with high efficiency solves this problem perfectly. Heat pump air conditioner is considered as a promising device for the application of SOFC-APU with a high cooling and heating efficiency. To make a quantitative analysis for the application of SOFC-APU,a model is built in Matlab / Simulink. The diesel engine model and SOFC-APU model are fitted based on some experimental data of SOFC-APU and diesel engine during the idling operation. An analysis of the application of SOFC-APU on different trucks in Northeast China is comprehensively made,including efficiency and emission.

Research on the Optimization Design of Intersections for Safe Operation of Large Trucks

When big trucks are running at urban road intersections,they are easy to interfere with other motor vehicles,and the turning big trucks are easy to have conflicts with non-motor vehicles and pedestrians,which will affect the safety of intersections.This paper first studied the intersection of trucks to the running trajectory,on this basis,through the establishment of mathematical model analysis of large truck steering conditions inside the wheel,and the influence of blind area to the driver.In the research of intersection safety design,the safety design is divided into three parts:Entrance road,internal operation and signal control.At the same time,the design method of the entrance road,the interior of the intersection and the signal control is given,which improves the safety of the truck driving at the intersection.Finally,the intersection of Jungong road and Zhoujiazui road in Yangpu district of Shanghai was selected as a case,and the optimal design of the intersection for large trucks was carried out through the investigation and analysis of actual data.The evaluation and analysis were carried out by using the multi-index matter-element model.The results show that the comprehensive safety correlation degree of the intersection is reduced to 0.42,and the safety level of is improved by one level.

Battery aging-minimal speed control of autonomous heavy-duty electric trucks in adaptation to highway topography and traffic

The development of battery electric(BE)heavy-duty trucks(HDTs)is highly limited to the short cycling life of batteries.In this paper,we propose a battery aging-conscious control strategy for extended battery life by optimizing the speed trajectory of BE HDT.A state-space model is constructed by connecting the vehicle dynamics and battery state of charge,and a mechanism-based aging model of battery is then introduced to formulate the optimization problem for minimal battery aging and energy consumption.The optimization problem is solved within a model predictive control framework for the real-time speed control of the vehicle.A non-cooperative platooning controller is further developed for the vehicle in adaptation to the traffic,where the intervehicular distance is controlled for reducing the air drag coefficient so that both the energy consumption and battery aging are improved.Simulation results show that for the single-vehicle controller,the battery degradation and energy consumption are,respectively,reduced by up to 25.7%and 3.2%compared with the cruise control strategy.Based on the non-cooperative controller,the HDT is able to follow preceding vehicles with different parameters with battery aging and energy consumption further,respectively,reduced by 2%–5%and 9%–10%compared with those of the single-vehicle controller.