Search Results

The relationship between road geometric design and vehicles moving along it should be in a harmonic way in order to reduce the risk of accident occurrence. As a safety issue, the accident black spot analysis can lead to improvements in traffic signaling and/or to changes to the conflictive roadway section. This paper shows the applicability of the vehicle's dynamic behavior simulation as a complementary tool for evaluating geometrical modifications of roadway sections. A simplified example is described using a typical heavy vehicle, which follows a roadway section under two scenarios, one with an unchanged path and other with some modifications in order to increase safety. Results showed that vehicle's dynamic simulation can offer a detailed perspective of the vehicle's behavior to identify the effectiveness of the proposed changes before they are applied in the practice.

In recent years, supersingle tires have been introduced in order to replace dual tires. In some countries such replacement is not a straight forward issue due to either lack of knowledge on its mechanical behavior or because their regulations do not consider such tire configuration. Usually, it is assumed that the force transmitted by dual single tires onto the roadway surface is evenly distributed and the contact pressure is quite similar to the tire's inflation pressure, although studies in this topic have shown that these assumptions are not realistic. Therefore, damage produced by supersingle tires is a main concern for road and transportation authorities. In order to obtain information on supersingle tires' behavior, a lab experimental assessment was carried out.