Study on Driving Stability of Tank Trucks Based on Equivalent Trammel Pendulum for Liquid Sloshing

Abstract

To investigate the driving stability of tank trucks, an equivalent trammel pendulum was utilized to approximately demonstrate the dynamic characteristics of liquid sloshing in a partially filled tank. The oscillation movement of the trammel pendulum in the tank was described under the tank-fixed coordinate system and its motion equation under the noninertia coordinate system was derived using a Lagrangian function. The motion of the pendulum that expresses the fluid cargo dynamic behavior and that of the solid truck was coupled with each other by the tank. Therefore, a tank truck dynamic model was established using Newton's first law and the angular momentum. A typical tank truck was selected and used to study its driving stability under steering angle step test. The study on tankers driving stability is of great importance for evaluating tankers driving safety, investing the main impact factor aspecting tankers driving stability, and developing active/passive roll control systems for them. Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Safe Learning Reference Governor: Theory and Application to Fuel Truck Rollover Avoidance

“…In what follows, we introduce models to represent the roll dynamics of a fuel truck with a partially filled tank. These models were originally proposed in [10], [27], where sloshing dynamics of liquid fuel in the tank are accounted for and modeled by an equivalent trammel pendulum. We summarize them here for the sake of completeness.…”

“…This angle θ is related to the tilt angle of liquid free surface and is assumed to be measured (e.g., using a combination of wave gauges, and level and optical sensors [32]) for our LRG implementation. The following equation of motion for θ in the tank-fixed inertia frame can be derived [27],…”

“…Now taking into account the motion of the tank when the truck is making a turn (illustrated in Fig. 3), the following equations of motion of the trammel pendulum system in the tank-fixed non-inertia frame can be derived [27],…”

“…4) is the longitudinal distance between the CG of the unsprung mass and that of the tank truck. The lateral acceleration of the pendulum mass can be expressed as [27],…”

“…3) We demonstrate an application of LRG to fuel truck rollover avoidance under sloshing effects. An equivalent mechanical model for lateral fuel sloshing based on [27] is first described, and a vehicle dynamics model is integrated with the lateral fuel sloshing model for the simulation study. Simulation results are reported which illustrate learning and vehicle response during step commands, sine-and-dwell tests and when driving conditions change.…”