Vehicle Handling Model

1) Abstract

  2) Introduction
The aim of this project is to design and develop a simple vehicle handling model in either/both ADAMS/Matlab environment and to extend it to include rear wheel steering.
The steering system is designed to ensure that the wheels point towards the desired direction with positive response to whatever directional signal driver may make on the steering wheel, in order to keep the deviation from the desired course low. This enables the driver to control and continuously adjust the steering path of the vehicle that is typically accomplished through series of mechanical linkages which is normally incorporated between the front steered wheels and driving wheel. However the correlation between turning angle of the steering wheel made by driver and the change in the driving direction is not linear and therefore there is no definite functional relationship because of these factors
• Development of lateral tyre forces
• Alteration of driving directions
• Turns of the steering wheel
• Alterations of the steer angle at the front wheels
This arises from the elastic compliance in components of the chassis, so driver must adapt to the path and continually adjust the relation between the alteration in the direction of travel and turning of the steering wheel accordingly. To do so there is wealth of information the driver will take into perspective. This may include factors like the roll inclination of the body, transverse acceleration and the self-centring torque the driver would feel via steering wheel. It’s through steering moment or torque that the driver gets the information which provides him with the feedback of the forces acting on the wheels. Its therefore the steering system that has to convert the steering wheel angle into as clear relationship as possible to the steering angle of the wheels and carry the feedback about the state of the movement back to the steering wheel.
The first approach that needs to be brought under...