Effects of locking differentials on the snaking behaviour of articulated steer vehicles

The important effects of locking differentials for alleviating and removing the oscillatory instability or snaking behaviour of an articulated steer vehicle are introduced. First, a linearised model is developed to identify the most important parameters and critical driving conditions with regard to the snaking mode. Then, by using the results, the linearised model is analysed to reveal the effects of locking the differentials on the snaking mode. Based on this analysis, locking the differentials introduces a type of damping to the system that can be used to stabilise the vehicle during the snaking mode. Moreover, the numerical results from analysing the linearised model are consistent with those from the simulation of the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle in ADAMS. This verifies the simplifying assumptions for developing the linearised model.