Forecasting the durability of public transport bus bodies depending on operating conditions

Abstract

This paper addresses the issue related to forecasting the durability indicators of public transport buses under operational conditions. It has been established that when buses are operated to transport passengers the bus bodies wear at different intensities. During operation, the strength of the body frame weakens under the influence of corrosion in combination with sites of fatigue destruction. As it was established, the intensity of corrosion of the bus body depends on the number of residents in the city where the bus is operated. The earlier established dependences were taken into consideration; the current study has identified two conditional variants of corrosion evolution based on the number of inhabitants: up to 1 million and exceeding 1 million. The expediency of repairs and their impact on the bus passive safety has been analyzed. It was found that the elements of the body frame, without external characteristic damage, no longer meet the specified conditions of strength as a result of sign-alternating loads and during long-term operation. Determining the durability of the bus body was made possible through the construction of a mathematical model. The model’s adequacy was confirmed by road tests of the bus. The devised model describes the movement of the bus over a road surface with different micro profiles, with different corrosion penetration, different loading by passengers, and bus speeds. It was established that the reason for the evolution of structural corrosion is the influence of salt mixtures preventing the icing of roads, as well as ignoring the washing of buses after such trips. It is recommended to use new software for the in-depth study into this issue addressing the combination of various factors of destruction: cyclic loads at variable bus speeds and the corrosion progress. The study results could make it possible to predict a life cycle of the body frame under factors that correspond to actual operating conditions.