Wind Loading on Articulated Trailers During Tipping

Modern articulated trucks have very large trailers, up to 11 m long. When they empty their load, the body may be inclined at up to 40° this causes a high obstruction to sideways winds, which may cause the vehicle to roll over. The lateral force and the roll-over moment were measured in wind tunnel tests of a 1/60 scale model of a typical truck with the body at different tipping angles, ψ, and the wind in different directions, α.

The side force coefficient was found to be approximately 1.5, almost independent of ψ, α up to 15° and Reynolds number up to 340000. The resultant of the wind force was found to act at almost the same height above the ground as the centroid of the lateral area for all values of ψ.