Lateral stability study of a vehicle fitted with hydraulically interconnected suspension in slalom maneuver

Abstract

This paper presents a lateral stability study of a vehicle fitted with a hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) system. The HIS can decouple suspension modes and provides both stiffness and damping to suspension roll mode without stiffing its warp mode. The performance of the HIS in improving vehicle roll stability has been intensively studied in the past decade, while only minimal efforts have been made for understanding its effects on lateral vehicle dynamics, i.e., yaw rate, vehicle slip angle, trajectory tracking ability. Previous research shows that an increase in roll stability of a vehicle may not necessarily increase the vehicle's lateral stability, but a decrease in lateral stability may cause the roll instability. Therefore, the HIS parameter design has to take both roll and lateral dynamic aspects into consideration. This study aims to investigate the vehicle cornering responses and lateral stability of the HIS system, in comparison with its counterpart anti-roll bars.