CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
7 November 2008
Implementation Investments
LMS Helps the Liebherr Mining Equipment Co. Meet the Design Challenges Behind the World’s Largest Diesel-Electric Truck
LMS announced that LMS technology has played a critical role in the development of the Liebherr Mining Equipment Co’s T282B, the world’s largest diesel-electric mining truck currently in production. Liebherr counted on LMS multibody and durability solutions to build a vehicle tough enough to withstand harsh mining conditions while providing maximum load capacity.
One of the primary challenges when designing an efficient vehicle this large is that total vehicle weight cannot exceed tire capacity. Every kilogram shaved from the vehicle structure goes back into payload capacity. A market-leader, the T282B is 12% lighter than other comparable mining trucks yet rugged enough to withstand the world’s mining environments. It also features the lowest operating costs per loaded tonne.
“Mining trucks are some of the most abused vehicles in the world,” said Liebherr Mining Equipment Co. Analysis and Simulation Manager Dr. Vladimir Pokras. “At many of these mines, operators drive as fast as they can over refrigerator-size boulders and holes as big as bathtubs to haul as many loads as possible.”
Engineers at the Liebherr Mining Equipment Co. needed to integrate advanced features like the differential wheel control system into a lightweight yet highly durable and efficient diesel-electric truck. To do this, the team at the Liebherr Mining Equipment Co. relied on LMS multibody dynamics technology for full-vehicle simulations to study the truck’s behavior on various terrains with a variety of load examples, including acceleration, braking, turns, bumps, holes, washboarding, up and down steep grades and backing into barriers.
“LMS multibody dynamics serves as a central point where all the designs of individual major components and subsystems come together into a single unified full-vehicle model,” Dr. Vladimir Pokras explained.
After a number of simulation iterations, multibody loads for the final design were entered into LMS durability software to determine the fatigue life of the critical structural components and assemblies such as the frame and axle box. Tight integration between LMS multibody and durability software enabled fatigue life studies to be performed quickly and accurately, thus providing engineers valuable feedback for developing lightweight parts to withstand expected operational loads without under or over-designing them.
James Whitfield, Liebherr Mining Equipment Co. General Manager of Research and Development, concluded, “It’s not impossible to design mining trucks without using simulation – other companies do it all the time. But the only way to design a market-leading, optimally weight-efficient truck is with advanced simulation tools like LMS durability and multibody software solutions. We can’t maintain our market leadership any other way.”
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