Citation

Kress T, Kress R. Int. J. Veh. Des. 2001; 26(4): 361-373.

Affiliation

Department of Industrial Engineering, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, United States

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Vehicle design, accident analyses, vehicle system design (e.g. braking systems), and road design often require computer modelling of vehicles moving downhill. This paper describes the development of a simple computer model that can provide users with a general tool for the analysis of the energy terms associated with ground-based vehicles moving downhill. The tool is general in that it is applicable to various vehicles (trains, tractor-trailer trucks, small trucks, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, etc.) but under restricted conditions it is also applicable (via minor changes) to particular objects (e.g. skiers and rolling objects). The model uses an energy-balance approach to determine downhill speed and simulation results can be presented in a number of forms. The model is applied in this paper to evaluate a trucking accident.