A study into the modelling of the divergent loss of stability of a tractor-semitrailer subject to an external lateral force and a strategy for the stabilisation of its motion

Volodymyr  Verbytskyy; Mike Blundell; Reza N.  Jazar

doi:10.1080/00423114.2025.2488955

A study into the modelling of the divergent loss of stability of a tractor-semitrailer subject to an external lateral force and a strategy for the stabilisation of its motion

Volodymyr Verbytskyy
, Mike Blundell
, Reza N. Jazar

Centre for Future Transport and Cities

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

In this paper, a two-link approach is used to model the tractor-semitrailer when subject to a disturbing external lateral force. The analysis is conducted in the ground plane considering only forward, lateral and yaw motion. As such, it is an extension of the well-known bicycle model typically used to model a vehicle represented by a single body. Using this simplified model the divergent loss of stability is analysed when the vehicle is undergoing steady state motion. The analysis of the divergent loss of stability for the complete tractor-semitrailer model is then reduced to the analysis of the divergent loss of stability for a model of the tractor only. Generalisations of the graphical method for determining the set of stationary states of the reduced tractor model are also considered. The conditions for a divergent loss of stability, when a tractor-semitrailer unit is cornering with a constant Ackermann angle steering input, are developed in an analytical form. The accuracy of the results obtained using this simplified approach is then evaluated through a comparison with the results obtained using a numerical method considering continuation by two parameters for a full model.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	(In-Press)
Number of pages	26
Journal	Vehicle System Dynamics
Volume	(In-Press)
Early online date	15 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/00423114.2025.2488955
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 15 Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been
published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent

Keywords

Two-link vehicle
non-linear lateral forces
steady states
divergent stability
lateral disturbance

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10.1080/00423114.2025.2488955Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Blundell2025VORFinal published version, 3.35 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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A study into the modelling of the divergent loss of stability of a tractor-semitrailer subject to an external lateral force and a strategy for the stabilisation of its motion. / Verbytskyy, Volodymyr ; Blundell, Mike; Jazar, Reza N. .
In: Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. (In-Press), 15.04.2025, p. (In-Press).

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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abstract = "In this paper, a two-link approach is used to model the tractor-semitrailer when subject to a disturbing external lateral force. The analysis is conducted in the ground plane considering only forward, lateral and yaw motion. As such, it is an extension of the well-known bicycle model typically used to model a vehicle represented by a single body. Using this simplified model the divergent loss of stability is analysed when the vehicle is undergoing steady state motion. The analysis of the divergent loss of stability for the complete tractor-semitrailer model is then reduced to the analysis of the divergent loss of stability for a model of the tractor only. Generalisations of the graphical method for determining the set of stationary states of the reduced tractor model are also considered. The conditions for a divergent loss of stability, when a tractor-semitrailer unit is cornering with a constant Ackermann angle steering input, are developed in an analytical form. The accuracy of the results obtained using this simplified approach is then evaluated through a comparison with the results obtained using a numerical method considering continuation by two parameters for a full model.",

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N2 - In this paper, a two-link approach is used to model the tractor-semitrailer when subject to a disturbing external lateral force. The analysis is conducted in the ground plane considering only forward, lateral and yaw motion. As such, it is an extension of the well-known bicycle model typically used to model a vehicle represented by a single body. Using this simplified model the divergent loss of stability is analysed when the vehicle is undergoing steady state motion. The analysis of the divergent loss of stability for the complete tractor-semitrailer model is then reduced to the analysis of the divergent loss of stability for a model of the tractor only. Generalisations of the graphical method for determining the set of stationary states of the reduced tractor model are also considered. The conditions for a divergent loss of stability, when a tractor-semitrailer unit is cornering with a constant Ackermann angle steering input, are developed in an analytical form. The accuracy of the results obtained using this simplified approach is then evaluated through a comparison with the results obtained using a numerical method considering continuation by two parameters for a full model.

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A study into the modelling of the divergent loss of stability of a tractor-semitrailer subject to an external lateral force and a strategy for the stabilisation of its motion

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Keywords

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