Directional stability of buses under influence of crosswind gusts

Incidents with heavy vehicles have put the issue of directional stability of buses under influence of crosswind gusts into focus. In this work the directional stability of buses when exposed to crosswind gusts has been investigated by using a MBS vehicle model combined with a generalised crosswind gust model and results from static wind tunnel measurements. The simulations carried out show the importance of the aerodynamic properties of buses as well as the importance of a proper weight distribution. It is also shown how important the driver model is in order to get realistic directional deviation in simulations and thereby also how important the driver is in order to keep the directional deviation to a minimum in real life situations.