7 DOF Vehicle Model for Understanding Vehicle Fluctuation During Straight Running 2003-01-3412

This paper concerns an introduction on how to lead the 7 degrees of freedom (7DOF) model for understanding the vehicle-fluctuation during straight running. Despite the steering wheel being fixed at on-center by anchor rod connected to the floor, vehicle run with a very slow lateral fluctuation, of which amplitude is small but becomes maximum at a certain speed zone, was observed by a vehicle test on a flat road of the proving ground. For understanding this phenomenon, I provided the motion equation of the 7DOF model. By analysis using the motion equation, the existence of a speed zone where the amplitude becomes maximum is confirmed. This appears when the rear compliance steer is the proverse compliance steer and disappears by changing it to the adverse compliance steer. Where, the adverse/proverse compliance steer mean the characteristics of compliance steer that increase/decrease the side-slip angle versus the vector direction of the vehicle⁽¹⁾.