Road Vehicle Dynamics

Fundamentals of Modeling and Simulation

Road Vehicle Dynamics supplies students and technicians working in industry with both the theoretical background of mechanical and automotive engineering, and the know-how needed to perform numerical simulations. Bringing together the foundations of the discipline and its recent developments in a single text, the book is structured in three parts: it begins with a historical overview of road vehicles; then deals with the forces exchanged between the vehicle and the road, and the vehicle and the air; and finally, deals with the dynamic behavior of the vehicle in normal driving conditions with some extensions towards conditions encountered in high-speed racing. Coverage of contemporary automatic controls is included in this edition.

Contents:

• Short Historical Notes on Motor Vehicles

• Forces Acting on the Vehicle:

  • The Tire as a Supporting Device
  • Driving, Braking and Cornering Forces
  • Road Vehicle Aerodynamics

• Dynamics of a Rigid Vehicle:

  • Longitudinal Steady-State Dynamics
  • Longitudinal Dynamics During Acceleration
  • Braking
  • Steady-State Handling
  • Non-Steady-State Handling
  • Vehicles with Trailers

• Dynamics of a Vehicle on Elastic Suspensions:

  • Noise, Vibration, Harshness (NVH)
  • Types of Suspensions
  • Simple Suspension Models
  • Multibody Models
  • Models for Studying Road Accidents

Readership: Students & Professionals dealing with Mechanical engineers.
Key Features:

• The book has been updated, including the background and the mathematical models needed to deal with those control systems which are increasingly applied in the automotive field (ABS, vehicle dynamics control, active suspensions, 4WS, etc.)