ASSESSMENT OF HYDRAULIC SURGE BRAKE EFFECTS ON FATIGUE FAILURES OF A LIGHT TRAILER

摘要

Fatigue damage of light trailers is a common method of failure. In the current study, it was suspected that actuation of thernhydraulic surge brake was contributing to fatigue failures of a light trailer drawbar. The trailer was subsequentlyrninstrumented and tested at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center (ATC). Testing was performed, both with a normallyrnoperational surge brake system, and with the system physically disabled. Of interest in this paper, are the statistical effects ofrnthe braking system on the measured trailer drawbar strain in the region of failure. Results show a slight contribution of thernbrake torque to the measured strain. However, other measured responses (accelerations and angular rates) showed the terrainrnprofile and vehicle speed to have a more significant contribution to the measured strain.