Liquid cargo effect on load transfer under orthogonal accelerations

A methodology is proposed for the experimental analysis of the liquid cargo effect under combined orthogonal accelerations. To simultaneously subject the vehicle-cargo system to longitudinal and lateral accelerations, the vehicle is set obliquely on a tilt table. The experimental outputs suggest that there is a significant effect of the liquid cargo on the lateral load transfer ratio (LTR), on the order of 20%, which is attributable to the resulting shifting of the liquid cargo's centre of gravity. That is, the peak LTR values due exclusively to sloshing were not significant, in such a way that the liquid cargo would only pose a safety risk under a steady acceleration input. Also, the inverse of the product of the magnitude of the acceleration times the free surface length, correlates with the liquid cargo effect. That is, the magnitude of the input acceleration is not fully determinant for greater load transfers.