Steady State Handling Performance Study & Optimization of Tractor-Semitrailers

Tractor-semitrailers make up large proportion of heavy commercial vehicles, handling stability of tractor-semitrailers is critical to driving safety. Handling behavior of Tractor-semitrailers is complex and depends on various parameters. This paper presents a mathematical approach & multi body dynamics (MBD) simulation based study to gain an insight as to, how changes to different parameters of the articulated vehicle affect it’s handling behavior and thus to obtain an optimized design in terms of vehicle handling. A Full vehicle multi body dynamic model is created and steady state cornering maneuvers are performed on simulation tool MSC ADAMS/View for calculating understeer gradient using constant radius test method. Various parameters affecting understeer gradient are identified, studied and their relative effect on understeer gradient is measured. These critical parameters were then optimized using MSC ADAMS/View tool to achieve the desired handling targets. This process, thus establishes a generalized approach for measuring and identifying various factors affecting understeer gradient of Tractor-semitrailers.