Understanding Truck Roll Overs

Paul Dore Paul Dore

Logistics Engineer
File name: Truck Roll Over Transafe Forum Esperance.pdf Phone 0437 988 148
Logistics Engineer WA Paul.dore@engistics.com.au
 Who is Engistics?
ü Engineers specialising in Transport and
Logistics safety related activities

ü Load Restraint Systems, Traffic Management

Plans, Vehicle Rollover Risk Reduction,
storage and handling safety and efficiency

ü Clients across all key industry sectors in

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Australia and Newzealand

ü We work hard for practical outcomes for We apply engineering to

prevent these incidents
improved safety and efficiency.

Copyright Engistics 2
ww.engistics.com.au
The Agenda

u  HOW do trucks Roll Over?

u  WHY - The Key Factors

u  Speed & Cornering
u  Roundabouts & Flick flack effect
u  High Centre of Gravity
u  Load Shift
u  Road Geometry
u  Tyres and Suspensions
September 2005, Carrington Roundabout Newcastle
u  Kerb Impacts NOTE the prime mover is on its ROOF, not its side,
in a 60 kph zone
u  Guidelines and NZ Roll Stability
Calculator Software
3
 HOW do articulated trucks typically Roll Over?

u  The loaded trailer has a much higher Centre of Gravity than the prime mover.
So it starts to roll first.
u  The chassis beams then twist, storing a large amount of energy.
u  Then the prime mover starts to lift and tilt up.
u  Once past the point of no return, (in mid air), the chassis “untwists” which
typically flips the prime mover onto its roof. Usually fatal for a driver without a
seat belt?
u  Sometimes the side of the prime mover
will not even get a scratch as it
doesn’t touch the ground.
4
Film Clip from American Testing

Particularly note in this video how the chassis twists as the rear axle group
lifts off while the prime mover is still in full contact with the road.
5
Look Carefully at the picture.....
NO brakelights!

6
Analysis of load restraint test

Driver does NOT know the trailer is going

Already past the point of no return

7
Analysis of load restraint test

Driver now knows, brake lights on

1 sec elapsed time, rims being scrubbed

8
Analysis of load restraint test

Driver now feels it, catastrophic failure

2 sec elapsed time, cabin whipped over

9
The Mechanics of Rollover
u  There are Many factors that contribute to a Rollover, but
fundamentally all rollovers have one thing in common....
u  The Over-turning Moment is greater than the Righting Moment

10
The Key Factors

Speed & Cornering

u  A BIG factor, but
rarely the only one
u  Commonly used to
blame the driver
February 2006, Freeway exit Hume highway
Just a little too much speed and NOTE the prime mover
is on its side, not its roof. Just a couple of k's over

u  ANY corner can be taken without truck roll over, BUT

reduced speed may be necessary, (< speed limit!)
u  Corners which go from fast to slow speed zones and where
the radius tightens “unexpectedly” are commonly involved
(I.e. human error in reading the corner)
11
Correcting during cornering

12
 Speed - Centrifugal force

The Overturning Force = Speed2

Radius of cornering

Speed2
Increases
If the Recommended speed was 60 km/h 3600 overturning by
Is it serious if the truck does 65 km/hr 4225 17.4%

Or if the truck does say 70 km/hr 4900 36.1%

Now say the driver misjudges the line of the corner a little, and has to “tighten up”
Radius 90% Radius 80%
If the Recommended speed was 60 km/h
4000 4500
Is it serious if the truck does 65 km/hr
4695 30.4% 5281 46.7%
Or if the truck does say 70 km/hr
5444 51.2% 6125 70.1%
13
 The Key Factors

Speed & Cornering

u  Roundabouts are a BIG factor,
because :
u  Reverse Camber
u  So called “Flick Flack” effect
(lean one way and then flick back
to the other side) Batu Tiga Malaysia
Driver does a rapid S bend to change lanes at the toll
u  We all drive to “seat of the pants” booth, setting up as “flick flack” 19t coil breaks free
g forces (ie human behaviour) saving the driver from a roll over. Coil narrowly misses
motorcycles.

14
 The Key Factors

Road Geometry Roundabouts

u  Jumping a kerb on the rear
axles when the vehicle
stability is already at the
critical point can be
catastrophic.
u  Typically this occurs as the
rear axle group clips the kerb
on exiting the roundabout
u  Look which way it rolled, for a
clue of the cause
15
The Key Factors

Road Geometry
u  Run off Road incidents (often fatigue related?)
This Roll Over is really an
outcome not the cause

Jan 2006, Near Hexham NSW

Driver drifts and goes down steep embankment.
Truck carrying a load of steel bars rolls and traps
16
driver
The Key Factors

High Centre of Gravity

q  Visually the trailer LOOKS more bulky, BUT the real
center of gravity is much closer to the center of the load.
q  Classic Problem = high load on a shipping flat rack.
q  40 ft rack = ~650mm EXTRA height

22t Load
26t

4t Shipping
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Flat Rack

7t 7t Trailer

The trailer LOOKS bigger than the Representation which Representation of a truer picture
coil but actually weighs much less. gives a truer picture of of CoG if on a shipping flat rack
location of CoG 17
The Key Factors

C of G. - Simple Rule of Thumb (Imperfect but useful!)

q  Calculate the Centre of Gravity of the payload (rack + product)
q  If OVER 2600 mm ABOVE ground = DANGEROUS = STOP!
q  If under 2300 mm above ground = Probably OK for normal trailers

22t
Say 1600 Load

1600
Still~
26t 40 ft Shipping
650 4t
Flat Rack
Typ 1450

Typ 1450
7t 7t Trailer

CoG height = Mass Green x height Typical CoG of a load of Typical CoG of export load
green + Mass gold x height gold pipe & tube = 1450 + 800 = = 2730 mm = Danger!
2250 mm = fine 18
divided by mass (green +gold)
 The Key Factors

Center of Gravity
u  What About the 4.3m Legal Load Height?
u  Legal Load Heights are about bridge clearances and not
trailer stability.

4.3m Load
Height

19
 The Key Factors

Load Shift
u  Poor Load Restraint
u  Low friction
u  Sideways sliding
u  Sideways toppling
u  Large lateral gaps in
containerised load

20
Rollover by Load Shift

21
Photos from Fatal accident
28 June 2012
Critical Facts:
•  Truck speed was confirmed to be
45km/hr in 70km/hr zone
•  High CoG load but SRt = 0.35g so
should be (just) OK
•  19.7t was free to slide “plastic on
plastic” friction ~ 0.16 to 0.32
•  Lateral gaps of 240mm

Unlucky Camry

Very Lucky Camry 22

 The Load Shift Caused the Rollover

LHS
Gap RHS
100mm Gap
100mm

Centre
Gap
140mm

The load as it left China After the incident and recovery.

Note that air bags were ONLY used at the front Note the LHS airbag is still intact!
door. Nil securing at other end Centre & RHS bags crushed
Upper packs to LHS in recovery

Conclusions: Load was NOT secured to NTC Load Restraint Guide or shipping standards
Load has NOT moved in the ship (as all bags would fail and packs splinter under
rock and roll) 23
Dynamic Loads “The slosh factor”

Slosh of Product in Tankers

u  Baffled forwards, but rarely sideways
u  Part Full is worst case
u  ~2 second period seems worst with
pendulum (“flick flack”) effect?
u  Beware of Slurry as maybe worse again
Graph from research
paper* showing that
40-60% loading of an
elliptical tank
dramatically lowers SRT
compared to a full tanker

The “slosh” of a 40% full tank is much

worse than that of a notionally full tank
* “Stability Effects of Sloshing Liquids and Hanging Meat”
John de Pont, Transport Engineering Research NZ, Oct 2004 24
Electronic Rollover Programs

Electronic Roll Over Protection

u  ERP systems work well
u  Works as a module on top of ABS
Brakes
u  Very difficult & expensive to retro fit so
Fonterra Australia’s milk tankers were
best thought of as new fit only some of the first users in Australia

u  Not 100% guarantee though, in the

wrong circumstances the computer
can still be beaten & rollover occurs

25
Electronic Rollover Protection

26
The Other Factors

Tyres and Suspensions

q  If the trailer has a flat tyre, OR blown air
bag, OR cracked springs, one side of the
vehicle may be “soft”
q  This allows extra deflection which greatly
exaggerates the sideways lean.
q  Air Bags Vs Steel Springs?
–  Airbags slightly better
–  Springs fail more suddenly

Batu Tiga Malaysia 27

The trailer had a smaller inside tyre fitted by mistake
Why do Trucks Topple when Tipping?

q  WHY Topple? – Similar Factors to Truck Roll Over

q  Overturning Forces > Righting forces

q  Why?
q  Cross Slope
q  Hang Up of Material
q  Pot Holes & Uneven Ground
q  Tyres and Suspension Failures
q  Wind Forces

28
Tip Over Axle trailers Vs Tip Over Chassis

q  Tip over axle trailers

are preferred for
payload

q  Tip Over Chassis are

less susceptible to
toppling as not relying
solely on one axle / set
of tyres.

29
Why do Trucks Topple when Tipping?

30
 SRT & NZ Stability Calculator

u  In NZ the rollover rate for logging trucks

was SO bad (11% pa) that the NZ Govt
introduced limits of 0.35g for Static Rollover
Threshold SRT (or 0.45g for fuel tankers)
u  Control Rollover risk by a minimum SRT
u  UNECE Europe requires SRT >0.40g for
tanker tests or >0.42g by calculations OUCH!

u  Aust PBS DG tankers SRT>0.40g or >0.35g

u  TERNZ developed a simple web based
SRT calculator (Imperfect but useful!)
u  Engistics has a full version
Old fashioned solution was to
design for CoG within 64 degrees 31
 Summary

q  Trucks don’t Roll Over just because of dumb speeding drivers

q  Speed of cornering is a big factor, but NOT the only factor
q  High Centre of Gravity is critical
q  Beware Shipping flat racks, Mezz Decks etc…
q  If your CoG > 2600 mm above ground DANGER!,
q  If your CoG < 2300 mm above ground probably OK,
q  OR Check the NZ stability Calculator
q  Load Shift & Dynamic Slosh is often a factor
q  Road Geometry especially Roundabouts = Risk
q  Tyres and Suspensions can be hidden factors
q  Electronic stability = the future 32
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