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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.

This paper starts with study on the transfer characteristics, and the vibration isolation of the cab suspension. Vibration models of cab suspension and complete vehicle were built through multi-body dynamics software ADAMS. Finite element and multi-body dynamics were collaborated into the analysis of the transfer characteristics, the response and the isolation feature of cab suspension based on the complete vehicle. To improve the vibration performance of the cab suspension, improvements and optimization design were proposed with genetic algorithm method. The analysis results show that there only limited effectiveness on coil spring. So the improvement plans were proposed to replace the coil spring with an air spring and setting transverse damper. According to the plans, the original cab suspension was modified. The piecewise function method was used in fitting the characteristic of the air spring.