Study of the Roll Stability of a Tank Truck–Liquid Bidirectional Coupling System with Movable Baffles

<div>Currently, methods to improve the stability of liquid tank trucks mainly focus on mitigating the sloshing of liquid inside the tank. This is usually achieved by adding various additional devices such as baffles, bulkheads, and flexible materials. However, existing methods are relatively singular and passive in addressing the liquid sloshing response under complex driving conditions of tank trucks, and they do not fully consider the coupling effects of the entire vehicle’s dynamics model on tank sloshing. This article proposes an intelligent control strategy that uses threshold values as a control criterion to move the baffle in the direction opposite to the liquid sloshing. For comparison, a corresponding condition with stationary baffles was set as a control, and the effects of movable baffles and their porosity on the roll stability of tank trucks were studied. To further investigate the coupling interaction between liquid sloshing and the vehicle during actual driving, this article realized a bidirectional coupling response between the liquid sloshing numerical model and the vehicle’s eight-degree-of-freedom dynamic numerical model. Through model validation, the accuracy of both the liquid sloshing model and the vehicle’s eight-degree-of-freedom model was confirmed. The study found that movable baffles can more effectively suppress liquid sloshing compared to stationary baffles. By controlling the movement of the baffles, the impact of liquid sloshing on vehicle behavior can be reduced, thus improving vehicle stability. This article provides a new, customizable intelligent control approach for complex driving conditions.</div>