Study on Steering Mobility of Multi-axle Vehicles with Independent Braking System

Multi-axle vehicles are often used in off-road or heavy-load conditions, with large size and more than one steering axle. Steering radius of multi-axle vehicle is large and steering mobility is worse than normal vehicles because of long wheelbase. For multi-vehicles with independent braking system, when inner wheels of rear two axles are braked and driving torque of other wheels is increased, steering radius decreases and mobility is improved. A new method of improve steering mobility through braking inner wheels is proposed. Through establishment and analysis of an 11-DOF vehicle model, the change regulation of steering radius under different steering angle and driving torque is obtained. As driving torque grows, steering radius decreases, the rate of decrease gradually slows down. As steer angle of front wheel grows, steering radius decreases. The results show that the proposed method can effectively decrease steering radius and increase steering mobility.