Accelerated fatigue testing on special tracks as new part of methodology for bus/trolleybus development

Over the last twenty years, the Research and Testing Institute in Pilsen (former SKODA ResearchCompany) has been developing a methodology of computational and experimental investigationof strength and fatigue life of bodies of road vehicles for mass passenger transport. The metho-dology includes multibody dynamic simulations, FEM stress analysis, test bench testing and stressmeasurement during the service of a prototype vehicle aiming the evaluation of data about itsfatigue life. Thefirst presented case study demonstrates an example of using the methodology inthe design stage of a trolleybus. There is a bus manufacturer that plans to include acceleratedfatigue testing on special test tracks as afinal test to demonstrate a satisfactory operationalfatigue life of the vehicle in a shorter time. In real urban traffic and on the test circuit, extensivestress measurements on a number of structural details and components have been carried out andanalysed. In collaboration with the Regional Technological Institute, which is the research centreof the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of West Bohemia, fatigue life wascalculated for critical structural details and components of various parts of the bus. Based onthese calculations, the development potential was assessed and planning of accelerated tests onproving grounds was considered