Roll Stability Performance Simulation of Tractor-Semitrailer Based on ARCSIM - Advanced Research on Computer Education, Simulation and Modeling - page 216

Fig.2 shows lateral accelerations, lateral movements, yaw angles and roll angles of
tractor and semitrailer respectively at 96.56km/h speed. It is can be noted that the
response data of semitrailer is close to the response data of tractor. So the
performance of roll stability of the vehicle is good at this speed. Also we can see the
yaw degree of semitrailer delay that of tractor. It meets the practice when the vehicle
is changing lane.
When the tractor-semitrailer's speed is up to 126km/h, from Fig.3 we can see
lateral accelerations of tractor and semitrailer occur great fluctuation. It means the
vehicle will roll, so 126km/h is the threshold of roll in this condition.
3.2 Simulation of Steering and Braking Condition
This simulation case is assumed as: "steering and braking" condition. Same with the
case one, the vehicle is full load and the running speed is set from 96.56km/h to up.
When simulation, the speed is divided by several grades, the steering wheel angle step
input signal is applied too.
Taking the running speed 96.56km/h as a starting point, the simulation results in
different speeds should be gotten. Figure 4 shows the changes of simulation test
indicators with time. It can be seen that the semitrailer is almost synchronous with the
tractor. The case is stable.
Fig. 4. Simulation results at 96.56km/h in case 2