Title: Influence of articulation damping on the yaw and lateral dynamic response of the vehicle

Authors: Subhash Rakheja, R.K. Vallurupalli, John Woodrooffe

Addresses: Visiting Researcher, Centre for Surface Transportation Technology, National Research Council Canada; Professor, CONCAVE Research Centre, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve West, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1MB, Canada. ' Graduate Student, CONCAVE Research Centre, Concordia University, Canada; presently at Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. ' Senior Research Officer, Centre for Surface Transportation Technology, National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada

Abstract: A concept of articulation damping is analysed to investigate its influence on the magnitude of yaw and lateral oscillations of the articulated vehicles subject to directional manoeuvres. A kinematics analysis of the dampers, mounted externally to the articulation mechanism of the articulated vehicle, is performed to derive the lateral damping forces and yaw damping moments acting on the sprung masses. The cornering forces and aligning moments of the radial tyres are characterised by a nonlinear function in normal load, side-slip angle and pneumatic trail. A yaw-plane model of a tractor-semi-trailer, incorporating the kinematics and dynamics of the external dampers and nonlinear cornering characteristics of tyres, is developed to investigate the influence of articulation dampers on the yaw and lateral response of the vehicle. The equations of motion of the vehicle are solved for high-speed lane-change and evasive manoeuvres. The results of the study show that the peak magnitudes of yaw and lateral oscillations, encountered during high-speed directional manoeuvres, can be significantly reduced by the externally mounted articulation dampers.

Keywords: articulated vehicles; articulation damping; directional response; lateral dynamics; tyre model; vehicle model; yaw dynamics; vehicle dynamics; kinematics analysis; yaw damping; tractor-semi-trailer; cornering characteristics; high speed; heavy vehicles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.1995.054543

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 1995 Vol.2 No.2, pp.105 - 123

Published online: 18 Jun 2013 *

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