Characterising heave, pitch, and roll motion of road vehicles with principal component and frequency analysis

Abstract

For the great majority of transport vehicles, the magnitude of the heave vibration is generally more severe than pitch and roll. Consequently, the measurement, analysis, and simulation of the vehicle vibrations have been focused on vertical vibration. Despite this, it is now being increasingly recognised that the combination of heave, pitch, and roll vibratory motion can induce more severe damage to shipments than vertical vibration alone. Although the pitch and roll motion of road vehicles can now be readily measured, there is little information on how to analyse the data to produce meaningful statistical relationships between the three variables. This paper builds upon previous work that showed that there is some correlation between pitch, roll, and heave motion and that these relationships are dependent on vehicle geometry, including payload mass, centre of mass, vehicle roll centre, and moments of inertia as well as vehicle speed and the road surface. In this paper, data from a range of quasi‐controlled experiments, which involved driving vehicles at constant‐speed on selected roads, were analysed using principal component analysis as well as frequency domain analysis to reveal the relationship between heave, pitch, and roll motion. This was undertaken for a variety of vehicle speeds and routes in order to establish if they influence pitch and roll response. Results are presented in the form of distribution functions, statistical coefficients, and frequency response functions, all of which are useful for helping to define parameters for the simulation of complete, three‐axis vibrations using multi‐axis vibration test systems.