Stability of an articulated vehicle with suspended cargo

Tractor-trailers are widely used to convey. Frequently they are used for suspended cargo transport, for example in refrigerated vehicles for the transport of meat. In this work, the stability of equipped articulated suspended cargo vehicles has been studied. The objective is to characterize possible conditions of instability that can be induced by the presence of oscillating cargo. By means of a linear mathematical model of the articulated vehicle, the critical speed has been determined and of the sensitivity of the critical speed to the variation of some characteristic parameters of the vehicle has been analysed. Finally, the improvement is when a passive device of viscous type was inserted between the tractor and the trailer has been examined.