An assessment of steering drift during braking: a comparison between finite-element and rigid body analyses
Klaps, J. Day, Andrew J. Hussain, Khalid Mirza, N.
Klaps, J.
Day, Andrew J.
Hussain, Khalid
Mirza, N.
Publication Date
2010
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Abstract
A vehicle that deviates laterally from its intended path of travel when the brakes are
applied is considered to demonstrate ‘instability’ in the form of an unexpected and undesirable
response to the driver input. Even where the magnitude of lateral displacement of the vehicle
is small (i.e. ‘drift’ rather than ‘pull’) such a condition would be considered unacceptable by
manufacturers and customers.
Steering ‘drift’ during braking can be caused by several factors, some of which relate to vehicle
design and others to external influences such as road conditions. The study presented here examines
the causes and effects of steering drift during straight-line braking. A comparative analysis
is made between two types of vehicle model: one built with rigid suspension components and
the other with flexible components. In both the cases, the vehicle behaviour is simulated during
braking in a straight line, and responses including lateral acceleration, yaw rate, and lateral
displacement of the vehicle are predicted and analysed under fixed steering control. Suspension/steering
geometry characteristics, namely toe steer and caster angle, have been studied to
understand how the effect of variations in these parameters differs in models with rigid or flexible
components drift during straight-line braking. Results from both vehicle models show that
differences between rigid and flexible components can affect the predicted steering drift propensity.
The differences between the two models have emphasized the importance of using flexible
(compliant) components in vehicle handling simulations to achieve better correlation between
prediction and experiment.
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Klaps J, Day AJ, Hussain K and Mirza N (2010) An assessment of steering drift during braking: a comparison between finite-element and rigid body analyses. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part K: Journal of Multi-body Dynamics. 224(3): 307-317.
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