Dynamic Rollover Prediction of Heavy Vehicles Considering Critical Frequency

Rollover of commercial heavy vehicles can cause enormous economic losses and fatalities.It is easier for such vehicles to rollover if the driver’s steering frequency is close to the critical frequency of the vehicle’s roll motion;however,the critical roll frequency has rarely been investigated.In this study,the second-order transfer function between the steering input and roll angle was developed to calculate the critical frequency of the vehicle’s roll motion.The simulated spectrum and transfer function were then used to dynamically predict the peak lateral load transfer ratio.Laboratory experiments were conducted using a scaled vehicle to verify the critical roll frequency.The results suggest that the peak value of the lateral load transfer ratio during steering can be accurately determined from the driver’s input,and the critical roll frequency has a dominant effect on the dynamic rollover of heavy vehicles.