WIND LOADING ON ARTICULATED TRAILERS DURING TIPPING

Modern articulated trucks have very large trailers, up to 11 m long. W hen they empty their load, the body may be inclined at up to 40 degree s; this causes a high obstruction to sideways winds, which may cause t he vehicle to roll over. The lateral force and the roll-over moment we re measured in wind tunnel tests of a 1/60 scale model of a typical tr uck with the body at different tipping angles, psi, and the wind in di fferent directions, alpha. The side force coefficient was found to be approximately 1.5, almost independent of psi, alpha up to 15 degrees a nd Reynolds number up to 340 000. The resultant of the wind force was found to act at almost the same height above the ground as the centroi d of the lateral area for all values of psi.