Abstract
Truck rollover crashes on horizontal curves have been recognized as one of the most serious types of crashes. Driver’s instantaneous emergency steering maneuvers (DIESM) play an important role in truck rollover crashes, but have not received much attention. In the present study, the radius of curvature of the actual vehicle travel path (AVTP) under DIESM was calculated based on the transient bicycle model. Rollover margins were used to evaluate the truck-rollover potential under DIESM. To calculate rollover margins, the lateral acceleration under DIESM was calculated based on the radius of the curvature of the AVTP. A rollover threshold formula was introduced to calculate vehicle’s rollover thresholds by distinguishing two turning conditions. According to rollover margins, the maximum safe instantaneous input of the steering wheel against rollover for trucks was obtained. Moreover, theoretical results were verified by computer simulation. Results showed: (1) The maximum safe instantaneous inputs of the steering wheel were 259°, 212°, 182°, 162°and 147°, respectively, at speeds of 60 km/h, 70 km/h, 80 km, 90 km and 100 km when the superelevation rate was 0, and (2) superelevation significantly affected truck-rollover potential; the worst turning condition was turning from the inside to the outside of the curve. Due to the consideration of the wheelbase, the centroid position, the tire’s cornering stiffness and the suspension roll gain, the prediction results were more accurate.
Highlights
Truck rollover crashes are a major traffic safety concern due to high fatalities and serious injuries
Rollover Margin wasrepresented defined in two ways: (1) one rollover based on lateral which represented the difference between present lateral acceleration andacceleration, the maximum lateral acceleration that a vehicle couldthe experience without acceleration and maximum lateral thatby a vehicle could experience without overturning; (2) the rollover margin wasacceleration defined the proximity of the load-transfer overturning; (2) rollover was defined of the load-transfer ratio to an absolute valuemargin of unity, e.g., how closeby anthe axleproximity was to experiencing wheel lift
Equation (15) shows 1 the larger the steering wheel instantaneous input, the closer is the present lateral acceleration to the vehicle’s rollover threshold, i.e., the smaller is the rollover margin (RM) and the higher is the potential for rollovers, 2 the higher the driving speed, the smaller is the rollover margin and the higher is the potential for rollovers
Summary
Truck rollover crashes are a major traffic safety concern due to high fatalities and serious injuries. In the United States, the proportion of all traffic fatalities associated with rollovers was about 15% in 2020 [1]. Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revealed that trucks experienced the highest rollover rate in crashes [2]. This issue has received much attention by researchers and highway and vehicle agencies [3,4,5,6,7]. There have since been continuing efforts by researchers to reduce fatalities and serious injuries of rollovers [8,9,10,11].
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