Investigation on the influence of linearity and bandwidth on vehicle handling

Abstract

Vehicle Handling is a subject which is much debated by Vehicle Dynamicists, with regards to driver preferences. Linearity and Bandwidth are 2 handling characteristics that define vehicle handling. Vehicle development is a complex and costly exercise, which often involves test drivers fine tuning the handling characteristics of a car. Vehicle handling development is costly and time consuming, especially when little or no mathematically testing and modelling is done. In modern vehicle development the mathematical modelling is a vital process in fine tuning handling as well as cutting costs. Linearity and Bandwidth are investigated to analyse the parameters that affect them, and why they are important for vehicle handling.

Bandwidth refers to the frequency at which the car can respond to the driver’s instruction through the steering wheel. The importance of this is investigated by comparing the response of the human driver with the response of a car. Primary data is collected from volunteers, and compared with results from mathematical models constructed in Microsoft Excel. Linearity is investigated by stressing a tyre in an instron machine, and varying the internal tyre pressure to observe the effects.

The results show a significant difference in response frequencies between the human driver and the car itself. The instron testing did provide results demonstrating the important effect tyre pressure has on a car wheel’s vertical stiffness, which is a factor for cornering ability.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	David Trepess (Supervisor) & Georgios Chrysakis (Supervisor)