Evaluation and Improvement of Vehicle Roll Behavior

Vehicle roll behavior has a large influence on how drivers evaluate handling performance. This paper describes an approach to quantifying roll behavior experimentally and presents a method for designing suspension properties to improve the sensation of roll. In this study, it was found that using pitch motion as an evaluation index results in good correspondence with subjective evaluations. To obtain acceptable roll behavior, it is important to control pitch motion during roll to a lower mode at the front end relative to the rear. This desirable behavior can be achieved by designing suitable roll center characteristics, nonlinear load changes and damping force coefficients.