Mathematical Modelling of Trailer-Truck Jackknifing

[1] Timothy V. Fossum and Gilbert N. Lewis, A Mathematical Model For Trailer-Truck Jackknifing,
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Vol 2, No. 1, January 1981
[2] M. Bouteldja et al., Prediction and Detection of Jackknifing Problem for Tractor Semi Trailer,
IEEE Conference Publication, 2006.

Introduction--

What is Jackknifing- When a trailer truck is in jackknified
position, and if truck moves forward, the trailer moves
backward. It will be clear with fig 1. Boutelvard [2] defines
Jackknifing as Jackknifing is a stability control loss of a
tractor- semi trailer combination which causes the tractor or
semi trailer rotate with respect to the other .It is a state of
control loss or in another words its an accident. There is
nothing much which can be done once the trailer jackknifies.

If a truck is moving straight and takes a sudden turn
then it will jackknife. Application of sudden brake is other
instance, where inertia of trailer leads to jackknifing. Also,
reversing is one critical operation, and later on it will be
shown mathematically that how reversing can lead to
jackknife.

In many cases the trailer turns and enters
adjacent lane, blocking entire road both ways and also
causing lot of damage. There have been attempts made
to model the trailer truck and predict the possibility of
trailer truck jackknife depending on speed, path of truck.
Figure 2 shows that even a small trailer can jackknife. So,
the case we are studying covers a wide range. We can then device a system which will issue a
warning and one can avoid jackknifing.


Simplifications--

1. In this study of simplified trailer truck modelling is done.
2. Number of axel of trailer is neglected and assumed to be one.
3. Mass distribution of pay load is not taken into consideration.
4. Suspension and Brake Power distribution among various axles is neglected.
5. We are also neglecting the effect of steering and slip angle associated with it.

In spite of above simplification the model gives good result. Two cases are considered,
firstly truck moving straight line. Lastly truck moving in a circular path is considered. In a nut shell
what we want is, given the motion of trailer truck pivot point, we will like to find the path of rear
axle of trailer. This will help us to decide it trailer truck will jackknife or not.


Mathematical Modelling--

Fig 2. Represents a skeleton of Truck trailer. Trailer is denoted by simple line. We are
following procedure what Timothy[1] followed. X is position vector of Truck rear axle. Path of X is
Fig 1. Different Position of Trailer
Truck Jackknifing [2]
Fig 2. Jackknifing of small trailer,
www.thetruckersreport.com
basically the road path. Similarly Y is Position
vector of Y which denotes midpoint of rear axle of
trailer.

X has components say x
1
and x
2
, i.e. along
e
1
and e
2
axis. Similarly Y has components y
1
and
y
2
. So,

x
1
= C = Constant
x
2
= 0

Represents motion along positive e
1
axis. Now, if in this case, if

y
2
= 0 and
y
1
= C

Then trailer goes along same straight line, but if

y
1
= -C

Then it means that truck is jackknified. These are two extreme cases. In between a point exist
where transition from un jackknified to jackknified position takes place.

We now move to know more formal mathematical formulation and list out deciding
condition which will help us to decide if trailer truck will jackknifie or not.

Without loss in generality we take length of trailer as unity i.e. 1. One can look at this as scaling
also, though not exact way of looking, but remember, we are not at all worried about longitudinal
dimension at all. There is just one distance we need to take into account, which is trailer length.

We can now describe trailer length by vector (L), directed from base of trailer rear axle, to
rear axle of truck

L = (X-Y) (1)

Since Magnitude of L is unity,

L.L =1 (2)
(X-Y).(X-Y) = 1 (3)

The velocity of Trailer is along Vector L,

(4)

A is a constant.

Differentiating Equation (3) gives

2

. 0 (5)

. (6)

Substituting equation (4) in equation (6) gives
Fig 2. Truck-Trailer Model [1]
e1
e2

. (7)

(8)

(9)

Boundary conditions depend on the case takes. For example one can take a casr of
straight line path, second is circular path and so on. It will be discussed in detail when we actually
go for solving the above equation.


Non Dimensionalising-

Let

(10)

(11)

(12)

are non dimensionalised parameters.

Substituting (10), (11), (12) in (7) we get

(13)

(14)

So, we see the equation in invariant in scaling of parameter t, i.e. time. We wont bother about the
boundary conditions now. It will be taken care when we come to some specific problem, like
straight line or curve, etc.

Let

Therefore the non- dimensionalised equation is

(15)

In next part we will go through solving these equations and also some analysis of results.