ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics December 12- 15, 2021, Budapest, Hungary Handling Evaluation of Tractor-semitrailer with Split Fifth Wheel Coupling Undergoing an ISO Double Lane Change Manoeuvre A. Jogi 1 , S. Chandramohan 1 , S. Dash 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai, India -600036 ajithjogi@gmail.com, sujatha@iitm.ac.in 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli Trichy, India -620015 sabyadash21@gmail.com ABSTRACT Tractor-semitrailers face the issue of off-tracking which restricts their movement through congested areas. One of the innovative and passive methods to reduce off- tracking in tractor-semitrailers is to implement a Split fifth wheel coupling (SFWC). Studies show that off-tracking is reduced by up to 21% for a circular turning manoeuvre. The handling performance of the tractor-semitrailer with SFWC is not evaluated yet and hence needs to be ad-dressed. In the present work, in order to assess the handling performance of the vehicle with SFWC, simulations are carried out for ISO double lane change manoeuvre at various speeds. The results are compared with those of the Conventional fifth wheel coupling (CFWC) model to understand the relative performance of the tractor-semitrailer with SFWC. The results show that the performance of tractor-semitrailers with SFWC is on par with that of vehicles with CFWC at lower speeds; in fact, for speeds below 40 kmph, the lateral acceleration experienced by the semitrailer of SFWC vehicle is less compared to that of CFWC vehicle. However, it becomes a little unstable at higher speeds. With the development of stability control systems like Electronic stability control (ESC), optimized for tractor-semitrailers with SFWC, their performance would improve. Keywords: Split fifth wheel coupling, Off-tracking, Hitch, Tractor-Semitrailer, DLC, Handling 1. INTRODUCTION Tractor-semitrailers are articulated freight carrying vehicles, where a portion of the trailer’s load is supported by the tractor. Usually, these are lengthy vehicles making them difficult to manoeuvre in congested roads, since the space required to take the turn increases with wheelbase. Off-tracking is a metric to measure this turning space, which is defined as the radial distance between the trajectory of the front and rearmost axles of a vehicle during the turning manoeuvre. Many researchers, including Jindra [1], Pretty [2] and Choi et al. [3] have worked on the modelling of off-tracking. Steering the semitrailer axle is one of the effective methods for reduction of off-tracking; however, it includes a complex system to control the steering, which makes it expensive. Jogi and Chandramohan [4] have developed a new hitch mechanism, termed Split fifth wheel coupling (SFWC) which reduces the maximum off-tracking by a significant margin. SFWC is a passive mechanism without the inclusion of complex systems. It is necessary to evaluate the handling performance of the tractor-semitrailer with SFWC to ensure its safe operation. Double lane change (DLC) manoeuvre is one of the handling evalua- tion methods, wherein the vehicle swiftly changes its lane and comes back to its original lane to avoid an obstacle. There are various kinds of DLC specifications which have been compared with each other by Peng and Yang [5]. ISO DLC is one of the standards for such tests. ADAMS /Car tool is capable of performing the simulations of closed-loop ISO DLC test and provides good results [6]. https://doi.org/10.3311/ECCOMASMBD2021-251 401