Designing optimisation of a cane haulage vehicle.

Abstract

The sugar industry transports in excess of 20 million tons of sugarcane per annum, equating to approximately 800 000 road consignments. This entails substantial expenditure on vehicle capital and operational costs. There exists substantial scope to redesign vehicle configurations to reduce the vehicles tare mass and optimise the process of cane transportation. These modifications could potentially save the industry approximately Rl36 million per annum, and in addition will increase a vehicles lifespan, performance and speed. This project is one aspect of a larger project organised by the South African Sugarcane Research Institute, with the general aim of optimising the entire sugarcane transportation system. Aspects of this particular project include literature research as well as field investigation into the various sugarcane transportation systems in South Africa and throughout the world. The design of a cane haulage vehicle will be analysed and optimised, using tools such as finite element analysis. The aims of this project include the investigation of the engineering design issues with respect to vehicle/trailer configurations, and the design of an optimised cane haulage vehicle which increases the efficiency of raw sugarcane transportation in South Africa.