Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.3
2.5
Journals
Applied Sciences
Special Issues
Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles
applsci-logo
Submit to Special Issue Submit Abstract to Special Issue Review for Applied Sciences Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Mechanical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 July 2025 | Viewed by 7611

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Ján Dižo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Transport and Handling Machines, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
Interests: theory of transport means; vehicle dynamics; multibody system modeling; mechanical engineering; design of transport means; operational properties of transport means; analysis of rail and road vehicles’ properties
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Alyona Lovska

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Transport and Handling Machines, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
Interests: wagon; strength; dynamics; loading of construction; railway and ferry-boat transportation
Dr. Miroslav Blatnický

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Transport and Handling Machines, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Žilina, Univerzitná 1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
Interests: theory of transport mean; structural analysis of transport mean; modeling and simulation; theory and application of computational methods; mobile work machine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Applied Sciences Special Issue titled “Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles”.

Transport vehicles are an important means of transporting passengers and goods through countries across the world. The safe and reliable operation of transport vehicles can be guaranteed only by the use of state-of-art, efficient, reliable and environmentally friendly transport vehicles. Nowadays, such transport vehicles cannot be designed without undertaking the appropriate procedures. These procedures include simulations methods, which provide an effective, relatively rapid way of designing and predicting the dynamic properties of these transport vehicles. Virtual modelling cannot be the solely used way of verifying the transport vehicles; dynamics. Experiments are very important for researchers and scientists, whether conducted directly through the creation of a real product and putting it into operation or by conducting laboratory tests, in which life-size or scaled models of transport vehicles can be evaluated.

Dynamic analysis represents a vital strategy to find the optimal properties of transport vehicles, so that the operational safety and comfort of passengers can be ensured. The application of autonomous systems, neural networks and artificial intelligence to the design and analysis of the dynamics of transport vehicles is vital to achieving this goal. We intend for this Special Issue to present the latest research findings of simulations and experiments related to the design and dynamic analysis of transport vehicles, as well as be a great opportunity to share such knowledge with both other scientific experts and the public.

Dr. Ján Dižo
Dr. Alyona Lovska
Dr. Miroslav Blatnický
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • advanced methods in the design of transport vehicles
  • new trends in computational methods
  • simulation computations
  • experiments—laboratory vs. real operation
  • transport vehicles
  • dynamics of transport vehicles
  • track irregularities
  • multibody dynamics
  • finite element methods
  • artificial intelligence
  • virtual reality
  • neural networks in transport vehicles

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

24 pages, 14336 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Automotive Suspension System Failures and Reliability Evaluation: A Study Based on V-SIM Simulation
by Sławomir Kowalski
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15020805 - 15 Jan 2025
Viewed by 1196
Abstract
This article presents the factors that are conducive to the faster degradation of suspension system components with examples of typical system damage seen at diagnostic stations. Further in the article, the simulation of the deflection of the suspension system was conducted in the [...] Read more.
This article presents the factors that are conducive to the faster degradation of suspension system components with examples of typical system damage seen at diagnostic stations. Further in the article, the simulation of the deflection of the suspension system was conducted in the V-SIM 5.0 software, and the sample road consequences of damage to the system were presented. The simulation results showed that long-term use of the vehicle on uneven roads often leads to maximum deviations of the suspension system, even 150 mm. The consequence of such a condition may be its damage during driving, resulting in a road accident. The effects of damage to the suspension system were simulated while driving at a speed of 50 and 70 km/h. The article concludes with an estimation of the reliability indicators of the suspension system. Based on the results, it may be concluded that the operation of a fully loaded car in difficult conditions causes a 50% decrease in the system’s reliability as early as at a mileage of approximately 48,000 km. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

32 pages, 13777 KiB  
Article
Optimal Dimensional Synthesis of Ackermann Steering Mechanisms for Three-Axle, Six-Wheeled Vehicles
by Yaw-Hong Kang, Da-Chen Pang and Yi-Ching Zeng
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(2), 800; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15020800 - 15 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 933
Abstract
This study employs four metaheuristic optimization methods to optimize the dimensional synthesis of Ackermann steering mechanisms for three-axle, six-wheeled vehicles with front-axle steering mode and reverse-phase steering mode. The employed optimization methods include Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO), Differential [...] Read more.
This study employs four metaheuristic optimization methods to optimize the dimensional synthesis of Ackermann steering mechanisms for three-axle, six-wheeled vehicles with front-axle steering mode and reverse-phase steering mode. The employed optimization methods include Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization (HPSO), Differential Evolution with golden ratio (DE-gr), and Linearly Ensemble of Parameters and Mutation Strategies in Differential Evolution (L-EPSDE). With a front-wheel steering angle range of 70 degrees, two hundred optimization experiments were conducted for each method, and statistical analyses revealed that DE-gr and L-EPSDE methods outperformed PSO and HPSO methods in terms of standard deviation, mean value, and minimum error. These two methods exhibited superior convergence stability, faster convergence, and higher accuracy compared to PSO and HPSO. Reverse-phase (K = 1) steering mode outperformed front-axle steering mode, delivering reduced steering errors and turning radii. Considering the transmission ratio of front to rear axle (K) as a design variable in reverse-phase steering mode increased design flexibility and significantly lowered steering errors for the front and rear axle steering mechanisms. However, this comes with a slight increase in the turning radius of the vehicle’s front part compared to when K = 1. The optimized mechanism, designed using the DE-gr method, was validated through kinematic simulations and steering analyses using MSC-ADAMS v2015 software, further confirming the effectiveness and reliability of the proposed design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 2450 KiB  
Article
Simulation and Experimental Assessment of the Usability of the Phase Angle Method of Examining the State of Shock Absorbers Installed in a Vehicle
by Jacek Drobiszewski, Zbigniew Lozia and Piotr Zdanowicz
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(23), 10804; https://doi.org/10.3390/app142310804 - 22 Nov 2024
Viewed by 2671
Abstract
The technical condition of the shock absorbers used in automotive suspension systems is important with respect to vehicle occupants’ comfort and traffic safety. Therefore, much effort has been made for many years to find diagnostic methods that would be more effective. There is [...] Read more.
The technical condition of the shock absorbers used in automotive suspension systems is important with respect to vehicle occupants’ comfort and traffic safety. Therefore, much effort has been made for many years to find diagnostic methods that would be more effective. There is a preference for those methods where the shock absorbers do not have to be dismounted from the vehicle. Among those being in use, the ‘forced vibration methods’ have earned the widest acceptance. One of them is the solution where the angle of phase shift between the vertical displacement of the vibration plate and the tyre–plate interaction force is measured. The authors decided to assess this method’s usability by comparing simulation results with the results of experiments run on a prototype diagnostic test stand. They used two ‘quarter-car’ simulation models (linear and non-linear) and experimentally tested suspension systems of two medium-class cars. In the first stage, computations were made in the frequency domain for the linear model with two degrees of freedom, followed by simulations in the time domain, where an analogous but strongly non-linear model was used. In the latter model, the actual characteristic curves (determined during the laboratory measurements) of shock absorber damping, tyre and suspension elasticity, sliding friction in the suspension system, and tyre bouncing were taken into account. The authors have presented the computation results in the form of curves representing the phase angle as a function of the relative damping in the suspension system under test for the two medium-class cars. The suspensions of the cars had similar inertia properties but different characteristics of the spring and damping forces. The cars also differed from each other in the observed and measured level of the friction forces (twice bigger). The computation results obtained for the linear and non-linear model and the experiment results show a similar qualitative nature. In quantitative terms, however, they differ significantly from each other. The role of non-linearities is important. Nevertheless, the results show monotonicity and noticeable sensitivity to changes in the technical condition of the shock absorbers, which is an essential and desirable feature in diagnostics. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

13 pages, 2939 KiB  
Article
Study on the Length of the Effective Vibration Area of the Catenary in a Pantograph–Catenary Interaction System
by Liming Chen, Like Pan, Yan Xu and Chengbin Huang
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(15), 6822; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14156822 - 5 Aug 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 985
Abstract
The effective vibration area includes most of the catenary vibration caused by pantograph–catenary interactions and is the basis of the real-time catenary model for hardware-in-the-loop simulation. However, while the length of the effective vibration area is one of the most important parameters of [...] Read more.
The effective vibration area includes most of the catenary vibration caused by pantograph–catenary interactions and is the basis of the real-time catenary model for hardware-in-the-loop simulation. However, while the length of the effective vibration area is one of the most important parameters of the real-time catenary model, it has not been fully studied at present. In this paper, the length of the effective vibration area is first investigated. A pantograph–catenary interaction model is developed based on the modal superposition method. After the validation of the model, the vibration energy distribution of the catenary is used to determine the length of the effective vibration area based on the converged total energy. The influence of vehicle velocity and contact wire tension on the vibration energy distribution and length of the effective vibration area is investigated. The obtained appropriate length of effective vibration area is validated by a real-time catenary model and online measurement data of the contact force. The investigation results show that the energy distribution of the catenary can accurately determine the length of effective vibration area, and it increases with increasing vehicle velocity but decreases with increasing contact wire tension. The appropriate length of effective vibration area should be at least 160 m (approximately three spans) in the pantograph–catenary system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 4355 KiB  
Article
Study of the Dynamics and Strength of the Detachable Module for Long Cargoes under Asymmetric Loading Diagrams
by Juraj Gerlici, Alyona Lovska and Mykhailo Pavliuchenkov
Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(8), 3211; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14083211 - 11 Apr 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 931
Abstract
This article highlights the structural features of the detachable module for the transportation of long cargoes. The choice of profiles for the detachable module was based on the resistance moments of its components. The detachable module was considered a rod structure on four [...] Read more.
This article highlights the structural features of the detachable module for the transportation of long cargoes. The choice of profiles for the detachable module was based on the resistance moments of its components. The detachable module was considered a rod structure on four supports. To determine the longitudinal loads acting on the detachable module, mathematical modeling of its longitudinal dynamics was carried out, provided they were placed on a flat car during a shunting impact. The accelerations obtained were used for the calculations of the detachable module. This article presents the results of the strength calculation of the detachable module under asymmetric loading diagrams, i.e., the action of longitudinal and lateral forces on the detachable module structure. The results of the calculations show that the maximum stresses in the structure of the detachable module when it receives longitudinal loads are 7.7% lower than the permissible ones, and when it receives lateral loads, they are 5.8% lower. Thus, the strength of the detachable module is maintained under the loading diagrams considered. This study also included a modal analysis of the detachable module structure. The first natural frequency of oscillations is found to be 20 Hz. Thus, the safety of the detachable module movement in terms of frequency analysis is ensured. This research will help to create recommendations for the design of modern modular vehicles and improve the efficiency of the transport industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Simulations and Experiments in Design of Transport Vehicles)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-5
Back to TopTop