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Some of the best teaching methods are laboratory courses in which students experience application of the principles being presented. Preparing young engineering students for a career in the automotive industry challenges us to provide comparable opportunities to explore the dynamic performance of motor vehicles in a controlled environment. Today we are fortunate to have accurate and easy-to-use software programs making it practical for students to simulate the performance of motor vehicles on “virtual” proving grounds. At the University of Michigan the CarSim® vehicle dynamics simulation program has been introduced as such a tool to augment the learning experience. The software is used in the Automotive Engineering course to supplement homework exercises analyzing acceleration, braking, aerodynamics, and cornering performance. This paper provides an overview of the use of simulation in this setting.

Heavy trucks with solid front axles commonly use steering systems that have left to right asymmetry. The asymmetry creates the potential to cause steering pulls during brake application which are by their nature undesirable since they require an input in the steering wheel by the driver to maintain the correct path of the vehicle. Brake forces acting in the tire contact patches create toe-out moments around the kingpin axes that are resisted by the steering linkages. However asymmetry of the linkage allows unbalanced toe-out steer angle deviations at the wheels resulting in a path deviation of the truck that is perceived as brake steering pull. The factors influencing steering pull include the compliance properties of the steering linkages, road wheel geometry, drag link geometry and spring windup properties. The mechanics of the brake force interactions with these steering and suspension properties are explained here.