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Most tractor-semitrailers are fitted with multi-axle trailers which cannot be actively steered, and such vehicles with an articulated configuration are inclined to exhibit instability such as trailer swing, jack-knifing, and rollover at high speed. Proposed in this paper is an optimal control of the yaw stability of tractor-semitrailers at high speed by applying an active trailer's steering angle. An optimal control algorithm is designed by employing a 3-DOF vehicle model in the yaw plane. The optimal linear quadratic regulator (LQR) approach is used with a cost function including sideslip angles, yaw rates of both tractor and trailer, and trailer's steering angle. The yaw stability at the high speed is also quantified by the dynamic performance measurements of lateral path deviation, hitch angle and rearward amplification (RA). The algorithm is evaluated by co-simulations using TruckSim and Matlab/Simulink softwares.

Generally, noise will occur during steering with the hydraulic power steering system (hereinafter HPS). The noise producing in the rotary valve takes up a big proportion of the total one. To study the noise in the control valve, 2-D meshes of the flow field between the sleeve and the rotor were set up and a general CFD code-Fluent was used to analyze the flow inside the valve. The areas where the noise may be occurred were shown and some suggestions to silence the noise were given.