Shipping loads on skid mounted equipment

[dozer]

I've done a bit of searching on this subject but I can't seem to find anything definitive. I suppose that's because there are so many variables. I want to come up with some reasonable shipping accelerations for skid mounted equipment shipped over the road on a trailer pulled by a semi. I'm thinking of using the following:
Longitudinal: 1.2g
Transverse: 0.55g
Vertical: +-0.35g

I would consider vertical plus longitudinal and vertical plus transverse.

Does anyone know if there are any regulations in the U.S. actually dictating what the accelerations should be? If not, any ideas on values to use? Not trying to mitigate every circumstance like a collision. Just provide reasonable numbers that will provide acceptable level of confidence that the equipment will get to the site in one piece.

 

[TehMightyEngineer]

You could probably get a rough estimate with a cell-phone app, putting your cellphone attached to a large mass strapped down in your trunk, and drive around for an hour or so over various roads. Should give you a good idea of peak accelerations. Obviously a trailer will probably have larger forces due to the rigidity of the suspension in a trailer vs a car but I would think it would be close.

Professional and Structural Engineer (ME, NH, MA)
American Concrete Industries

http://www.americanconcrete.com

 

[MikeHalloran]

Data collected from the trunk of a car might be representative of the accelerations on a skid whose weight is a substantial fraction of a truck's capacity.

Data collected from the bed of a pickup might be representative of the accelerations on a skid whose weight is a tiny fraction of a truck's capacity.


This may be useful:

https://www.containerhandbuch.de/chb_e/stra/index.html?/chb_e/stra/stra_02_03_02.html

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[TLHS]

At one point I investigated braking deceleration, and it turned out to generally be in the 1g ballpark, so I tend to use that in every direction as the starting point and then factor it up somewhat because who knows how they'll mount anything.

For skidded stuff, though, the answer is generally to make it incredibly resilient. So this design force is normally just a check that easily passes rather than something I'll design down to.