Industrial PhD - vehicle-road interaction analysis framework i Sodertalje

Innovative vehicle component designs are driven primarily by the need to reduce fuel consumption and limit the environmental impact associated with transportations. High capacity transports, truck platooning, tyre pressure monitoring and new tyre designs are examples in this context.

Presently, there is no verified and accepted framework to assess the effect of new truck and truck components designs on the road network, or to assess new road surfaces on the fuel consumption and handling capability of trucks. To enable scientifically based evaluation of the trade-off between rolling resistance and damages it is necessary to develop a vehicle-road interaction analysis tool.

The tool developed will allow to quantify the effect of pavement surface state in terms of e.g. evenness, presence of single defects, magnitude and variability of friction on truck dynamic stability, fuel consumption and wear of truck components. Ultimately this allows for a societal economic impact analysis of new technologies such as high capacity vehicles, super-single tyres or tyre pressure monitoring systems.

The group, Dynamics and Strength Analysis, contributes to the development of future trucks regarding durability, handling and comfort. We are responsible for durability calculations on the chassis and vehicle dynamics simulations for complete vehicles. Currently, the group is comprised of 15 CAE engineers who, along with most of their clients, are situated at the Scania Technical Centre in Södertälje.

Description of work
Under this project, representative 3D dynamic truck model and FE truck tire model will be developed with a road model, verified and incorporated into a framework. The analysis tool will be verified with the field measurements performed on instrumented trucks and on instrumented pavement sections. Obtained results will be used to assess the effect of innovative solutions in freight transport (high capacity transports, truck tires with reduced rolling resistance) on tyre forces and pavement degradation.

The main deliverables are:

• A model for analysing tyre parameters impact on contact forces
• A framework for analysing the tyre parameters impact on damages in vehicle and road

What we can offer you
– As an industrial PhD you are an employee at Scania from day one. Your time and location will be split between Scania, Södertälje, and KTH, Stockholm. After your PhD exam, you will be a link between international research and research development departments at Scania.
– The project is conducted in the research centre ECO2 Vehicle Design at KTH. Within the Centre partners from academia and industry are connected in a collaborative space to promote cross-fertilisation of ideas and tackle cross-functional conflicts.
-As an employee at Scania we offer other benefits such as; company based results bonus, free training facilities, occupational pension, flexible working hours, company car, among many others. Should you live in Stockholm we offer a direct buss between Stockholm and Södertälje with Scania Jobexpress.

Your profile
You have a Master of Engineering degree, with solid theoretical knowledge of solid mechanics, the Finite Element Method and programming skills. You are curious, meticulous and self-reliant, with a large analytical ability. Moreover, you are easy to collaborate with and can communicate your results in a pedagogic way to your colleagues and the rest of the organisation.