Experimental Analysis of Dynamic Characteristics of a Large Vehicle Considering Its Roll Characteristics

Accidents involving of large vehicles such as buses and trucks are often caused by rollovers. Roll motions affects dynamics of large vehicles more than that of passenger cars because of their high center-of-gravity heights. In this paper, a 4-ton truck is used as an experiment vehicle in order to determine its plane and roll motion characteristics. Every experiment is conducted for two different load conditions in order to simulate the realistic operating condition of a truck, and the effects of the vehicle's load on its motions are determined. The results from both static and dynamic experiments are compared to see if the vehicle's reaction in actual driving differs from that of a static vehicle. Also, simple mathematical models are used to determine the relationship between the plane and roll motions of the vehicle.