Field Testing and Performance Evaluation of Roll Stability Control System of Double-Trailer Trucks

This paper provides a test-based performance assessment of roll stability control (RSC) and electronic stability control (ESC) systems for long combination vehicles (LCVs), namely, A-doubles with 33-ft trailers. Although ESC and RSC have been studied for conventional tractor-trailers, their effectiveness in reducing rollovers in LCVs has been limited. This study provides some of the results of an extensive series of track testing for A-doubles in steering conditions resembling an exit ramp maneuver, of the type that often occurs during highway driving. Four dynamic maneuvers are performed to assess and compare the roll performance of LCVs in three configurations: stock (no RSC/ESC), RSC enabled on both trailers, and the combination of tractor ESC and trailers RSC. Test results show that the RSC intervention results in a significant speed reduction of the LCV, followed by a lowering of the lateral acceleration at the front and rear trailers. When the LCVs are equipped with RSC and ESC systems, there is a substantially larger speed reduction and higher roll stability than trailers with RSC only. As compared with the stock configuration, the RSC only improves the rollover speed threshold by 8.5%, which further increases to 14.1% when both RSC and ESC are available on the LCVs.