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This study presents a practical theoretical method to judge the aerodynamic response of buses in the early design stage based on both aerodynamic and design parameters. A constant longitudinal velocity 2-DOF vehicle lateral dynamics model is used to investigate the lateral response of a bus under nine different wind gusts excitations. An appropriate 3-D CFD simulation model of the bus shape results is integrated with carefully chosen design parameters data of a real bus chassis and body to obtain vehicle lateral dynamic response to the prescribed excitations. Vehicle model validity is carried out then, the 2-DOF vehicle lateral dynamics model has been executed in MATLAB Simulink environment with the selected data. Simulation represents the vehicle in a straight ahead path then entered a gusting wind section of the track with a fixed steering wheel. Vehicle response includes lateral deviation (LD), lateral acceleration (LA), yaw angle (YA) and yaw rate (YR).

Vehicle Handling performance depends on many parameters. One of the most important parameters is the dynamic behavior of the steering system. However, steering system had been enhanced thoroughly over the past decade where Active Front Steering (AFS) is now present and other system as Active Independent Front Steering (AIFS) is currently in the research phase. Actually, AFS system adopt the front wheels’ angles base on the actual input steering angle from the driver according to vehicle handling dynamics performance. While, the AIFS controls the angle of each front wheel individually to avoid reaching the saturation limits of any of the front wheels’ adhesion. In this paper modeling and analysis of an AIFS is presented with Tire Work Load (TWL) based controller. Magic Formula tire model is implemented to represent the tire in lateral slip condition.

The dynamics of vehicles became one of the most important aspects for current developments of electronically controlled steering, suspension and traction/braking systems. However, most of the published research on vehicle maneuverability doesn't take into account the effect of the dynamic tire load and its variation on uneven roads. Clearly, it was stated that using a suitable active suspension system could reduce this dynamic tire load. This dynamic tire load is playing a vital role as it is the major link between the vertical and lateral forces exerted on the road, which affects the lateral dynamics of the vehicle. In this paper, a practical hydro-pneumatic limited bandwidth active suspension system with and without wheelbase preview control is used to study its influence on the vehicle stability in lateral direction. The model is a longitudinal half car with four degrees of freedom.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles connect to the power grid while parked so they can operate on electricity from the grid as well as on petroleum-based fuel. This distinguishes them in a fundamental way from the plug-less hybrid vehicles currently produced or planned by auto-marker which rely 100% on the petroleum-based fuel. A plug-in hybrid can reduce emissions. However, the aim of this paper is to investigate experimentally the aerodynamic noise performance of a plug-in hybrid vehicle induction motor with the view of evaluation. For this reason, a special test rig was developed to simulate the motor aerodynamic noise source. The results indicate that significant information can be obtained for this source. This can be an effective way to control this generated noise and consequently reduce the vehicle interior and exterior noises and look promising.

In this work the effects of vehicle vertical vibrations on the tires/road cornering forces, and then consequently on vehicle lateral dynamics are studied. This is achieved through a ride model and a handling model linked together by a non-linear tire model. The ride model is a half vehicle with four degrees of freedom (bounce and pitch motions for vehicle body and two bounce motions for the two axles). The front and rear suspension are a hydro-pneumatic slow-active systems with 6 Hz cut-off frequency designed based on linear optimal control theory. Vehicle lateral dynamics is modeled as two degrees (yaw and lateral motions) incorporating a driver model. An optimal rear wheel steering control in addition to the front steering is considered in the vehicle model to represent a Four Wheel Steering (4WS) system. The tire non-linearity is represented by the Magic Formula tire model.

Squeal from brakes is a problem in the automotive industry and large efforts are made to understand the squeal tendencies. The approach taken is mainly to change the design of the caliper, fine-tune the brake pad material and finally to trim the introducing shims on the backside of the pads. Despite these efforts still no general solutions exist. To advance the situation, a deeper understanding of the actual source of excitation of the sound in the friction interface is needed. However, in the present investigation the surfaces modifications of brake disc and pad have been tested with respect to the understanding properties. The surfaces modifications are slotted pad material and coated disc. All tests have been made in a brake test stand consisting of a complete front wheel corner of a vehicle. The changes have resulted in a significant understand of the generated noise.

This paper is concerned with the analysis of the performance of actively suspended vehicles when the effects of the aerodynamics are considered. The investigation is wholly theoretical and treats a half vehicle model, active suspension, through simulation of running at different speeds on a random-profile road. Using classical control laws, which do not account for aerodynamic effects, it is shown that starting from a vehicle speed of 35 m/s, ride comfort and road holding parameters significantly deteriorate. A method is introduced to modify the control strategy so that these effects can be taken into consideration. Various forms of control laws are presented, and conclusions are drawn to specify the benefits that could be achieved from this modified control strategy.

A full vehicle of a preview control semi-active suspension system based on an interval type-2 fuzzy controller design using a magnetorheological (MR) damper to improve ride comfort is investigated in this paper. It is integrated with the force distribution system to obtain the optimal rate of road adhesion during braking and handling. The nonlinear suspension model is derived by considering vertical, pitch, and roll motions. The preview interval type-2 fuzzy technique is designed as a system controller, and it is attached with a Signum function method as a damper controller to turn on the voltage for the MR damper. This voltage is adjusted for each wheel based on the external excitation generated by road roughness in order to enhance ride comfort. To describe the effectiveness and adaptable responses of the preview controlled semi-active system, the performance is compared with both the passive and MR passive suspension systems during time and frequency domains.

This research aims to model and assess autonomous vehicle controller while including a four-wheel steering and longitudinal speed control. Such a modeling process simulates human driver behavior with consideration of real vehicle dynamics’ characteristics during standard maneuvers. However, a four-wheel steering control improves vehicle stability and maneuverability as well. A three-degree of freedom bicycle model, lateral deviation, yaw angle, and longitudinal speed is constructed to describe vehicle dynamics’ behavior. Moreover, a comprehensive traction model is implemented which includes an engine, automatic transmission, and non-linear magic formula tire model for simulation of vehicle longitudinal dynamics. A combination of proportional integral derivative (PID) longitudinal controller and fuzzy lateral controller are implemented simultaneously to track the desired vehicle path while minimizing lateral deviation and yaw angle errors.

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) technique has been developed and applied by numerous researchers as a very useful predictor for nonlinear systems. In this paper, non-parametric models have been investigated to predict the direct and inverse nonlinear dynamic behavior of magnetorheological (MR) fluid dampers using ANFIS technique to demonstrate more accurate and efficient models. The direct ANFIS model can be used to predict the damping force of the MR fluid damper and the inverse dynamic ANFIS model can be used to offer a suitable command voltage applied to the damper coil. The architectures and the learning details of the direct and inverse ANFIS models for MR fluid dampers are introduced and simulation results are discussed. The suggested ANFIS models are used to predict the damping force of the MR fluid damper accurately and precisely. Moreover, validation results for the ANFIS models are proposed and used to evaluate their performance.

Integral Control strategy for vehicle chassis systems had been of great interest for vehicle designers in the last decade. This paper represents the interaction of longitudinal control and lateral control. In other words the traction control system and handling control system. Definitely, tire properties are playing a vital role in such interaction as it is responsible for the generated forces in both directions. A seven degrees of freedom half vehicle model is derived and used to investigate this interaction. The vehicle body is represented as a rigid body with three degrees of freedom, lateral and longitudinal, and yaw motions. The other four degrees are the two rotation motion of the front wheel and the rear wheel. This two motions for each wheel are spin motion and the steering motion. The traction controller is designed to modulate engine torque through adjusting the throttle angle of the engine upon utilized adhesion condition at the driving road wheels.

1 Rear wheel drive vehicles have a long driveline using a propeller shaft with two universal joints. Consequently, in this design usage of universal joints within vehicle driveline is inevitable. However, the angularity of the driveshaft resulting from vertical oscillations of the rear axle causes many torsional and bending fluctuations of the driveline. Unfortunately, most of the previously published research work in this area assume the propeller inclination angle is constant under all operating conditions. As a matter of fact, this assumption is not accurate due to the vehicle body attitudes either in pitch or bounce motions. Where the vehicle vibration due to the suspension flexibility, either passive or active type, exists.

Extensive studies of off-road non-pneumatic tires (NPTs) were conducted for light and heavy equipment due to their advantages over conventional pneumatic tires in terms of low rolling resistance, thus no need for air pressure maintenance. Finite element (FE) simulations of NPT contact pressure, contact shear stress, vertical stiffness, von mises stress, and rolling resistance were performed using ABAQUS software in a series of vertical loads to simulate tire models of three different spokes geometries on unpaved soil to verify NPT performance under different conditions. The spokes geometries were hexagonal (honeycomb) spoke, hexagonal re-entrant (Lattice) spoke and spoke with curvature called spoke pairs. It was found that the rolling resistance of the honeycomb structure has the lowest value, while the contact shear stress and contact pressure were the highest.

It is well known that the excessive levels of vibration in heavy vehicles negatively affect driver comfortability, cargo safety and road condition. The current challenge in the field of suspension design for heavy vehicles is to optimize the suspension dynamic parameters to improve such requirements. Almost all of the previous work in this field is based on applying the mathematical optimization considering active or passive suspension systems to obtain the optimal dynamic parameters. In this work a new passive suspension systems for heavy trucks is suggested and compared with the conventional passive suspension systems. The new systems rely on transferring the vertical motion, (vibration), into horizontal motion through a bell-crank mechanism to be taken by a horizontal passive suspension system. The system dynamic parameters like body acceleration, suspension travel and dynamic tire load are calculated assuming random excitation due to road irregularities.