Fully three-dimensional vehicle dynamics over rough pavement

Simplified vehicle models are usually employed when studying the dynamic effects of road traffic: quarter-car, one-dimensional vertical and two-dimensional longitudinal models are the most common. Furthermore, when complete three-dimensional vehicles are modelled, the differences between the road roughness under the four wheels at each time instant that arise from the time lag between front and rear tyres and from the difference between the profiles under left and right tyres are frequently neglected. The influence of employing simplified models and neglecting those differences has been analysed by means of a three-dimensional truck model. If simple models are utilized or differences between the four wheels are not considered, accelerations in the vehicle body are overestimated, which may lead to an incorrect evaluation of the passengers' comfort. It has also been found that the vertical dynamic load applied by a tyre to the pavement depends not only on the profile under that wheel but also on the profile...