A Vehicle Parameter Study on Crosswind Sensitivity of Buses 2004-01-2612

Incidents with heavy vehicles have brought the issue of directional stability of buses under the influence of crosswind gusts into focus. In this work the directional stability of buses when exposed to crosswind gusts has been investigated by performing a parameter study on a MBS vehicle-model combined with a generalised crosswind gust model. The study shows that the most important parameters are the magnitude of the yaw moment overshoot at gust entry and the weight distribution in combination with the location of the aerodynamic pressure centre.