Chapter 6 - Vehicle Body Roll and Vehicle Dynamics

Abstract

This chapter studies the effects of the body roll on vehicle handling dynamics. Following the explanations of the roll mechanism, the possible effects of roll stiffness, transversal load transfer, camber change, roll steer, and suspension lateral compliance on the steady state handling characteristics of the vehicle are examined. In order to obtain inertia force and moment, kinematics of rigid body motion and the equation of moment of momentum are applied to the vehicle motion with side slip, yaw, and body roll. Then, the three degree-of-freedom equations of vehicle motion with roll are introduced based on Newton's second law. Using the equations of motion, the description of the steady cornering of the vehicle is introduced by a simplified development of the equations of motion and the steady state cornering characteristics are theoretically analyzed. Also, the vehicle motion stability with body roll is analyzed and the critical speed is obtained by using the characteristic equation of the vehicle equations of motion.