In addition to ride comfort, handling stability and other conventional vehicle performances, we should also focus on other aspects of performance to a center axle trailer combination, such as the maximum stable side-inclination, the anti-rolling stability, the lateral stability and so on. Based on the finite element method, a rigid-flexible coupling model for the truck combination was built and analyzed in the multi-body environment (ADAMS), in which the key components of the chassis and cab suspension were treated as flexible bodies. A series of simulations were carried out to evaluate the lateral stability of the center axle trailer in accordance with the relevant regulations of the vehicle. The influence of design variables on the lateral stability was studied by an experiment. Furthermore, in order to improve the lateral stability of the trailer combination, the optimal design was obtained by the co-simulation of the ADAMS/Car, iSIGHT and Matlab.
