| Abstract: | Semi-active anti-roll systems, with a high and low roll stiffness, or, since cornering is typically a transient event, damping setting have the capacity to improve heavy vehicle stability while having very low power consumption. If a vehicle is travelling around a right-hand bend and a low roll damping setting is selected, the vehicle will roll outwards. If a high damping setting is then selected, the outward roll will be locked-in. When the vehicle enters a left-hand bend, the inward roll becomes locked-in. This has the potential to increase critical lateral acceleration by up to 12.5% if the vehicle's future course can be predicted accurately (e.g. with a Global Positioning System). However, if the vehicle does not follow the expected path, the critical lateral acceleration may be degraded. Exploiting the delay between a steer angle being applied and the lateral acceleration developing could avoid this problem. However, the benefits from such a system are considerably lower, up to a 2.4% improvement in critical lateral acceleration. Hence, a ‘modal control strategy’ is developed aimed at providing high levels of benefit while being robust to deviations from the expected path. The modal strategy is able to provide benefits of up to 11%, while being robust to most deviations. |
