Methods to introduce floating bridge motion and wind excitation on a model for the investigation of heavy vehicle dynamics

Journal article, 2023

The proposed floating bridge solution at Bjørnafjorden in connection with the E39 infrastructure upgrade is an enabler to realize efficient transportation. This bridge and the vehicles shuttling on it will be exposed to inclement weather conditions. The waves and wind excite the floating bridge to induce compound motion in addition to the aerodynamic crosswinds directly interacting with the vehicles. Methods to introduce the complex motion of the floating bridge (multi-post test rig) and aerodynamic crosswinds on a tractor semi-trailer have been established and presented in this paper. The environment-vehicle-driver system is enabled through a co-simulation between MATLAB/Simulink (primary) and Adams (secondary). This complex interplay is studied on the intricate 627-DoF Adams vehicle model coupled with the Adams driver model. Numerical simulations are performed for multiple constant vehicle speeds under laden condition on a road with friction of 0.7 for the 1-year storm weather condition. Vehicle stability and safety assessments such as lane violation, path following ability, rollover risk, and lateral side slip limit are evaluated to draw inferences. Subsequently, permissible vehicle speed for a laden tractor semi-trailer to operate on the floating bridge is suggested. Furthermore, a simpler 9-DoF tractor semi-trailer vehicle model developed in MATLAB/Simulink combined with the pure pursuit tracking based driver model is compared with the Adams model under identical environmental conditions for an unladen case. The simpler vehicle-driver model is validated against the detailed Adams vehicle-driver model through numerical simulations for different constant vehicle speeds.