Simplified Analysis to Determine Lateral Acceleration and Roll Angle in a Single Road Vehicle

In this paper, the importance of determining the lateral acceleration to characterize terrestrial vehicle behavior and its performance is addressed. Also, the technical difficulties to measure such acceleration and its dependency with vehicle roll angle are described. In the analysis of the motion of the vehicle's center of gravity (CG) and regarding to transversal acceleration components, the acceleration of gravity is taken into account to determine the roll angle, the lateral acceleration and the behavior of vertical acceleration component. As a result, and based upon the principles of operation of accelerometers, a scheme for a simple instrumentation to estimate the roll angle and lateral acceleration in an experimental assessment, is suggested as well.