Countering the Destabilizing Effects of Shifted Loads through Pneumatic Suspension Design

This article proposes a novel approach to reduce the destabilizing impacts of the shifted loads of heavy trucks (due to improper loading or liquid slosh) by pneumatic suspension design. In this regard, the pneumatically balanced suspension with dual leveling valves is introduced, and its potential for the improvement of the body imbalance due to the shifted load is determined. The analysis is based on a multi-domain model that couples the suspension fluid dynamics, shifted-load impacts, and tractor-semitrailer dynamics. Truck dynamics is simulated using TruckSim, which is integrated with the pneumatic suspension model developed in AMESim. This yields a reasonable prediction of the effect of the suspension airflow dynamics on vehicle dynamics. Moreover, the ability of the pneumatic suspension to counteract the effects of two general shifted loads - static (rigid cargo) and dynamic (liquid) - is studied. The simulation results indicate that the dual-leveling-valve suspension results in a reduction in roll angle and roll rate of the vehicle body for both static and dynamic load-shifting cases, as compared to the conventional single-leveling-valve suspension. Suppression of the liquid sloshing behavior is obtained by the truck with the dual-leveling-valve suspension. Furthermore, the co-simulation platform established in the study is useful for efficient and accurate analyses of the coupled shifted load-pneumatic suspension-vehicle system dynamics.