Abstract
An analytical and simulation study of a tractor-semitrailer vehicle incorporating active dampers, semi-active dampers and high gain load levelers is performed. A vehicle model with data of a typical tractor-semitrailer that includes rigid body translational and rotational modes as well as frame flexible modes is developed. Analytical and numerical procedures associated with the formulation and simulation of the vehicle dynamic response to stochastically irregular road profiles are presented. The potential ride performance improvements offered by the different advanced suspension systems which are based on the use of active control techniques are evaluated and compared with the performance of the conventional passive suspension.