A Force-Based Roll Center Model for Vehicle Suspensions

This paper presents the development and experimental verification of a steady-state, half-vehicle cornering model. The goal of this effort is to develop a model which retains the physical insight inherent to simple models, while providing a higher degree of accuracy.

The Force-based roll center (FBRC) model is presented as an evolution of traditional kinematic roll center (KRC) modeling. The FBRC model replaces the suspension with moveable wheel-chassis instant center pairs, and incorporates tire force/slip models. The FBRC model iteratively solves for vehicle position and loading during a steady-state cornering maneuver. Experimental verification of the FBRC vehicle model shows modeling accuracy up to tire saturation limits, which is well beyond the 0.4 g accuracy limit of KRC models.