Truck maneuverability is one of the phenomena, which is considered in development
stage of a commercial vehicle chassis structure. Torsional stiffness is one of
the important properties of the chassis structure that significantly affects
vehicle dynamic characteristics such as handling and rollover. The torsional
stiffness is preferred to be as high as possible since lower torsional stiffness
may cause resonance, vibration, poor handling, and rollover.
Torsional stiffness can be improved through minor modification in the
conventional ladder chassis frame.
This paper presents the comparative study on improving the torsional stiffness of
the chassis frame. The objective is to achieve the improved torsional stiffness
by varying the neutral axis of the frame long member section at a desirable
region. Torsional stiffness is dependent of the sectional modulus; this study
provides an insight on increasing the torsional stiffness without addition of
section modulus.