In order to improve the vehicle’s stability in riding, a complete linear mathematical model has been developped for a front wheel drive vehicle. All the suspension and steering effects are taken into account.
Two approaches are used: the modal analysis of the vehicle response can be well represented by two modes (exponential and sinusoidal) only and coupling between 3 basical motions: yaw - side-slipping, rolling and steering.
The effects of the main characteristics of the vehicle on the responses are studied essentially in the way of damping.
This study exhibits the importance of coupling between yawing and rolling. The optimization consists to decrease the importance of the coupling and the rolling as far as possible.
In order to do that, a semi-analytical study of the transfer function between yaw velocity and roll angle is performed. This allows to check the best set of suspension’s parameters.