Contribution of wind forces to rollover stability of heavy duty vehicle

HDVs rollovers cost hundreds of million dollars every year, the risk of having dead people in accidents involving HDVs is multiplied by 2.4 in comparison to the same risk computed for accidents involving light vehicles. Wind has been shown to be an important factor that must be considered when investigating HDVs rollover. In order to address these concerns, this research built an aerodynamic and vehicle dynamic model. In addition, the vehicle dynamic model, wind model and road model were simulated by TruckSim. The results of the analysis showed that wind speed had an influence on the rollover stability experienced by a bus. The simulation results were based on both wind speed and vehicle speed. It has been shown that as wind speed increased, the roll angle and yaw angle experienced by the bus increased, and the peak roll angle showed increases as wind direction increased. The contribution of this paper could help in implementing design standards for highways or wind barriers, and in the design of vehicles themselves.