Concerning evaluation of stability of motor vehicles carrying dangerous goods

The issue of active safety when carrying movable cargo is considered of vital importance since people's health and safety are involved. All cargo possessing fluid properties are covered by one common definition of 'fluid goods' the substance possessing insignificant shearing and tensile strengths which affect considerably the quantity and the direction of the vector of inertia loads affecting motor vehicles. In order to evaluate the vehicle stability against rolling over the test on the bench with the tipping platform, as well as the road test with performance of maneuvers according to the prescribed law of motion are considered obligatory. Complex tests of about 50 vehicles of different categories including tank trucks, articulated vehicles, mobile fire-fighting appliances, mixer trucks and ready-mix delivery trucks have been performed at the Central Proving Ground. As the main type of dynamic test, in our opinion, testing method and standard requirements for "lane change Sn = 20m" test should be accepted. The most dangerous load in dynamic testing corresponds to 70% tank filling. Therefore, it is proposed to accept filling coefficient 0.7 when active safety tests of vehicles with fluid cargo are performed. The research and testing for developing methods and requirements for evaluation of stability of vehicles carrying fluid cargo must be continued.