Computer Simulation of Vehicle Handling Behaviour by Rigid Body/Finite Element Modeling

A 3-degrees of freedom rigid body model has been developed to predict the directional response of a light passenger vehicle. An attempt has also been made to modify and use the finite element model developed for determining the vibration response of the vehicle to predict the directional response of the vehicle. The Newmark time integration scheme has been used as solver. The tyre properties such as lateral stiffness, cornering stiffness, self-aligning torque stiffness have been measured using the facilities of (CIRT) Central Institute of Road Transport, Pune. The simulation results of directional response of the vehicle in terms of roll angle, yaw rate and lateral acceleration for the sinusoidal and ramp steering inputs (applicable in tests such as the Slalom test and J-turn manoeuvre respectively) to the vehicle at constant speed have been presented. The results have also been validated by conducting tests on the vehicle by using the test tracks and equipments available at (VRDE) Vehicle Research and Development Establishment, Ahmednagar. A good correlation between the simulation and experimental results has been found. Parametric study has also been carried out to quantify the effect of various vehicle parameters on the response of the vehicle in terms of gain and phase lag.