Indicative contents

The typical proportion of class contact time is shown in brackets:

• Typical suspension configurations, double wishbone system, McPherson strut suspension system (10%)
• Use of analytical, graphical and rig measurements for the determination of camber angle, bump steer, caster angle, wheel rate, instantaneous centres, roll centres (10%)
• The use of multibody systems, analysis (MBS) in vehicle dynamics, suspension modelling techniques, reference frames, inertial and mass properties, constraint elements, joint library, degree of freedom calculations, modelling springs, dampers and bushes as linear and non-linear force elements (15%)
• The use of industry standard software (ADAMS) for suspension analysis, tyre modelling and vehicle handling simulation (30%)
• Tyre force and moment theory, SAE tyre co-ordinate system, vertical force characteristics, stiffness and damping, lateral force and aligning moment as a function of slip and camber angle, braking and tractive force, slip ratio, rolling resistance, conicity, ply steer, calculation of tyre kinematics and geometry using vectors (15%)
• Tyre testing, external drum, internal drum, flat belt, over the road tyre modelling techniques, interpolation methods, the `Delft' tyre model, the Fiala tyre model (10%)
• Computer simulation of vehicle handling manoeuvres, lane changes, control responses, steady state cornering using simplified vehicle-modelling techniques (5%)
• Design study applications varying mass properties roll centres, road surface conditions, tyre design parameters, influence on lateral acceleration, yaw rate, roll angle and vehicle trajectory (5%)
  

Module Resources

• Essential reading
  1. Course notes
• Books
  1. Gillespie TD, Fundamentals of vehicle dynamics, Society of Automotive Engineers, 1992
  2. W. Milliken & D. Milliken, Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, 1995, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) W. Milliken & D. Milliken, Chassis Design – Principles and Analysis, 2002, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
  3. J.Y. Wong. Theory of Ground Vehicles, John Wiley & sons. 1993 (2nd edition) 2001 (3rd edition).
  4. Ellis JR, Vehicle Dynamics, Mechanical Engineering Publications, 1969
  5. Rahnejat H, Multi-body Dynamics-Machines, Vehicle and Mechanisms, Mechanical Engineering Publications, 1998
  6. Blundell and Harty, The Multibody Systems Approach to Vehicle Dynamics, Elsevier Science, 2004
  7. G. Genta., "Motor Vehicle Dynamics. Modeling and Simulation". World Scientific. 1997.
• Magazine

1. Automotive Engineering International; Autocar INDIA; Overdrive

• Laboratory

1. Hardware: PCs
2. Software: MSC.ADAMS
3. Software Manual: MSC.ADAMS