Improving and Evaluating Hydraulic Front Wheel Drive for Trucks

Abstract

In this thesis on hydraulic FWD for trucks the aim have been to produce new function and control strategies with the aim to aid the truck in the real world situations with improvements in start ability and vehicle handling. In a simulation model from Volvo trucks a series of control strategies for the hydraulic FWD was tested during cornering. The result of this was a new control strategy was design. The idée is to increase the torque percentage directed to the front during cornering at low speeds. A real world test of this theory indicates that this would work as intended. A more extensive test and simulation of more types of truck is recommended for evaluation of the simulation results. The outer improvement is to create a simple differential lock by using the conventional friction brake to reduce the speed of the wheel that are struggling more for grip. This kind of system is already used at the rear driven wheel and should be rather easy to implement at front as well.