Endurance Testing of Heavy Duty Vehicles

Endurance tests are conducted on heavy duty vehicles to assure maintenance of structural integrity and acceptable levels of performance over the projected service life in the vocation for which the vehicles are intended.

This paper reviews current practice in endurance testing as applied to the structural components of heavy duty vehicles, components, and systems. A brief historical perspective is given, describing how endurance testing evolved from an art, based mostly on experience and engineering judgment, to a rather sophisticated technology. A brief treatise is given on fundamentals of fatigue life prediction, followed by a discussion of the technology and methodology involved in proving ground testing, use of road simulators and cab shakers, and laboratory based tests of systems and components.