Search Results

Sustainable mobility in all its aspects is the philosophy of the Superbus (Fig 1), which is a new concept for public transport that consists of a new vehicle, new infrastructure and new logistics. The Superbusproject is a project started by the chair AeroSpace for Sustainable Engineering and Technology (ASSET) of the Delft University of Technology (Tu Delft) in the Netherlands. The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Water Management and other sponsors with the aim to prove the feasibility of the concept. Sustainable mobility does not only relate to the environmental impact (global warming, CO2 and NOx emissions, etc), but also to the use of infrastructure and the impact of infrastructure on the environment, the safety of passengers and pedestrians, and the effective utilization of he system through its logistics.

The Superbus was introduced as one of the option for the Zuiderzeelijn, a fast connection between Amsterdam and Groningen and resulted to be the best option; the others being three different types of high speed train and the magnetic levitation train. In order evaluate the feasibility of its implementation, the Dutch Ministry of Transport and Water Management has decided to fund the realization of a demonstrator. The Superbus is sustainable, fast, lightweight, and appealing and transports passengers and goods from point to point and drives at high speed (250 km/h) on its dedicated and relatively cheap infrastructure. The Superbus is 15 meter long, 2.5 m wide, 1.6m high and weighs less than 9 ton when fully loaded. The vehicle has to be able to brake or avoid an obstacle (detected by the navigation and control system) within a distance of 240m. Alongside that, static and dynamic loading conditions have rendered the structural design targets very demanding.

The Superbus (Fig. 1) is a new public transport vehicle designed for comfortable, flexible and sustainable transportation. The Superbus, which drives at 250 km/h cruising speed on its dedicated infrastructures (the supertrack) and at conventional speed on existing roads, is safe, sustainable, and able to transport passengers and goods from point to point. In this paper the philosophy of the vehicle will be highlighted in terms of the vehicle fundamental concepts. Then, the analysis of the required personal space design will be discussed alongside the design criteria for accessibility. Finally, the layout of the vehicle will be described in its details.

Tyres are the primary contact between the vehicle and the road. It serves as the medium of communication between the road and the rider, which it does in terms of road loads and displacements. Therefore, measurement of dynamic wheel forces experienced by a two-wheeler is crucial for tuning the ride and handling characteristics of the vehicle. Currently, there are standard wheel force transducers available in the market, which are extensively used in cars. However, mass of such a system is relatively high to be used on two-wheelers. Special wheels and adaptors increase the unsprung mass considerably, which changes the dynamics of the vehicle. Moreover, cost of such systems is exorbitantly high to be used for two-wheelers. This paper describes the development of an innovative and a highly versatile and low-cost alternative method for real-time measurement of dynamic wheel loads and moments of a two-wheeler when compared with the currently available systems in the market.