Paper number 1150
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DESIGN OF A MULTI-FUNCTIONAL SEMITRAILER USING STRUCTURAL SANDWICH PANELS |
Hein Schellens1 and Ton Peijs 1,2
1Materials Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Eindhoven University of Technology. email: hein@wfw.wtb.tue.nl
PO Box 513, NL-5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2Department of Materials, Queen Mary and Westfield College,
University of London.
E-mail: t.peijs@qmw.ac.uk
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
| Summary | Due to economic development within the European community the amount of transported load will grow substantially within the next 15 years. Since road transport comprises 75% of the total transport, the growth will result in an increase of transport by road of 25%. This increase, however, is in conflict with our growing environmental awareness. Therefore, in order to decrease the emission of CO2 and NOx, there is a need to increase the maximum pay-load and, at the same time, increase the utilisation of a tractor-semitrailer combination. The pay-load increases by lowering the net tare weight (for weight based transport) or increasing the inner volume (for volume based transport). With a multi-functional semitrailer the chances of an empty return are minimised, and subsequently the utilisation increases. A sandwich based chassisless design concept shows that it is possible to increase the pay-load and utilisation simultaneously without a drastic increase of the costs. |
Keywords | transport vehicle, foam-cored sandwich structure, lightweight, trailer. |