Yaw Motion of Motor Vehicles

Vehicular accident reconstruction is intended to explain the stages of a collision. This also includes the description of the driving trajectories of vehicles. Stored driving data is now often available for accident reconstruction, increasingly including gyroscopic sensor readings. Driving dynamics parameters such as lateral acceleration in various driving situations are already well studied, but angular rates such as those around the yaw axis are little described in the literature. This study attempts to reduce this gap somewhat by evaluating high-frequency measurement data from real, daily driving operations in the field. 813 driving maneuvers, captured by accident data recorders, were analyzed in detail and statistically evaluated. These devices also make it possible to record events without an accident. The key findings show the average yaw rates as a function of driving speed as well as the ratio between mean and associated peak yaw rate. Beyond that, considerably lower yaw rates can be observed at low speeds than predicted by theory. This is due to the kinematic constraints of the steering geometry and car dimensions, whereas the driver’s influence recedes into the background. The findings allow the classification or plausibility check of event data recordings. It can also be used to cross-check driving dynamics simulations.