EFFECT OF ACTIVE CAMBER ANGLE CONTROL SYSTEM ON VEHICLE CORNERING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The thesis is dedicated to investigating the effect of wheels camber angle control on the handling behavior of a 3-wheeled vehicle. Tadpole configuration (2 front wheels and one rear wheel) was chosen as it showed better cornering performance than the delta one (One front wheel and 2 rear wheels). The study aim is to develop mathematical model able to prove the effectiveness of the control system and predict the vehicle behavior during cornering at different operating conditions. Hence, a detailed mathematical model of the vehicle was established using a computer simulation program based on MATLAB/Simulink software. The results showed notable stable and safer handling performance during cornering achieved specially when the camber angle control is applied to all wheels. The model included nonlinear viscus damping and coulomb friction of the suspension damper model. However, the results showed small decrease (2.6%) in roll angle compared to the linear roll model. The control application raised lateral acceleration threshold by 32.4% while the rollover speed increased by 15.2%. However, roll angle and yaw rate increased by 29.7% and 15.3%, respectively. Output control optimization of the camber angles of the three wheels in terms of magnitude, rate and direction have been carried out to achieve optimum vehicle handling performance during cornering. Keywords: Three wheels vehicle, Handling, Variable geometry active suspension, Camber control, Viscus damping and Coulomb friction.