Ride behaviour of trucks transporting liquids

Liquid motion in partially filled containers generates slosh forces and moments which affect the ride behaviour and stability of fluid cargo trucks. The main objective of the paper is to investigate the ride behaviour of trucks carrying two spherical fluid containers. A mathematical model of a medium weight truck has been formulated which takes into account the physical and dynamic characteristics of the fluid cargo. In this model, the fluid cargoes in both tanks are simulated as nonlinear pendulums with specific damping coefficients. The Runge-Kutta method has been used to solve the nonlinear equations of motion of the vehicle system in the time domain. The vehicle is excited by two sources at the same time. The first is a vertical harmonic excitation expressing road irregularities. The second is a relatively small longitudinal deceleration in the direction of motion. The partial filling ratio and liquid cargo viscosity are shown to play major roles in the vehicle ride behaviour. Finally, result analysis and discussions are made.