D. J. M. Sampson, D. Cebon, "Achievable Roll Stability of Heavy Road Vehicles", IMechE J. Automobile Engineering, 217(4):269-287, 2003.
A general purpose numerical model, suitable for simulating the yaw-roll behaviour of torsionally flexible heavy goods vehicles with an arbitrary arrangement of vehicle units, is presented. A controllability analysis is then performed to examine the fundamental limitations in achievable roll stability of heavy vehicles with active roll control systems. It is established that is not possible to control simultaneously and independently all axle load transfers and body roll angles. The best achievable control objective for maximising roll stability is shown to be setting the normalised load transfers at all critical axles to be equal, while taking the largest inward suspension roll angle to the maximum allowable angle. The results of a simulation of a tractor semi-trailer vehicle with a full-state feedback active roll control system are presented. It is shown that the roll stability of the vehicle can be increased by 30-40% for steady state and transient manoeuvres and that the handling stability improves significantly.
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