Pickering, Simon Gilchrist
(1994)
The stability of articulated tipping trailer units.
PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.
Abstract
When an articulated tipper unit is being loaded or is tipping, it is unlikely to be standing on perfectly level ground. Also, the centre of gravity of the load is unlikely to be in the centre of the body. Hence the loads carried by the suspension and tyres on one side of the tipper will be greater than those on the other side. This uneven loading will cause the tyres and suspension on one side of the tipper unit to deform more than those on the other side. It will also cause the chassis to deform; the twisting about its longitudinal axis being the most significant mode of deformation. As a result of these deformations caused by the uneven loading, the position of the centre of gravity will be shifted even further towards the more heavily loaded side. This will cause even more uneven loading and further deformations.
Under stable conditions a situation will exist at which the position of the centre of gravity, the deformations and the forces transmitted through the system are compatible. Instability, resulting in roll-over would occur if the overall centre of gravity of the load, body, chassis etc. were to fall outside the area bounded by the contact of the wheel with the ground, before a stable condition was reached.
Many factors influence the roll stability. To increase stability, an understanding of the influence of components of the lorry on the stability is required. In order to achieve this, a theoretical model of an articulated tipper was developed which will allow roll-over predictions to be made for a given lorry in likely attitudes. In this model dimensions and stiffness of the lorry components can be altered to assess their influence on roll stability.
The previous theoretical roll-over models were based on lumped mass systems, representing various parts of the lorry inter-connected by compliant elements. Certain flexibilities such as the tyres, suspension units, etc. could be obtained from the respective components manufacturers but the tractor and trailer chassis flexibilities are unknown. To overcome this problem the flexibilities were obtained from full scale static tilt tests. This is a very expensive undertaking, providing a limited means in which to assess those elements of trailer design which are important in improving stability, without further recourse to more tilt tests. It was decided that the finite element method should be used to model the tractor and trailer, in order to determine the important deformations. Once the finite element model is created it is relatively straight forward to make changes to the structure. Hence an assessment of component contribution to roll stability can be undertaken relatively inexpensively.
Whilst a vehicle operator should always endeavour to discharge the payload with the vehicle standing on level ground, practical situations arise where this is not possible. This may be due to the absence of level ground or poor judgement by the operator, which may result in the vehicle being tipped on a lateral ground slope. As a result of this, the maximum ground slope angle considered for the theoretical model is limited to eight degrees, as this position is at least twice the severity of ground slope on which a vehicle should normally be tipped.
For each trailer design, the magnitude of the load, position of the load, ram length and ground slope can be varied in any combination. Four payloads and up to nine payload positions are considered, varying the ground slope from 0 to 8 degrees and varying the ram length from 2 to 8 meters. Also, three further chassis configurations, based on the reference chassis were modelled to investigate the contribution of important component flexibilities on roll stability.
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