RCE4
RCE4
RCE4
I
e of the main focuses at OptimumG.
n the racing industry, I often us to walk less in the dark. Second, a representation of all the possible articles, this is what we defined as
find engineers that perform an engineer may spend hours and states of the vehicle during a corner an oversteer behaviour. We give
simulations in the same way hours to find a set-up that works at a given speed. Even though we the name of grip and balance to,
barmen create cocktails: by perfectly in his computer, only to be simulate all the combinations of respectively, the lateral acceleration
(sometimes randomly) mixing told later by the driver that the car is steering wheel angle (δ) and chassis and the yaw moment of Point 3. The
ingredients and varying quantities undriveable. A set-up that exploits 75 slip angle (β) within a range, most grip is a rather obvious performance
until they eventually find something per cent of the car performance can of the time we are interested in metric of the car; as you maximise
that matches their taste. From be, on the track, quicker than a set-up only a few points of the diagram. the lateral grip of your car, it can
weight distribution to springs and that exploits the performance at 95 Point 2, for example, represents the drive faster in corners. The balance
aerodynamic balance, everything per cent. We need a set of criteria to maximum lateral acceleration of the is a good indicator of how oversteer
is changed to, after numerous link the perspectives of the driver car while having zero yaw moment. It or understeer will exhibit at the limit
consecutive approximations, find and the engineer. That is why the corresponds to a situation where the of the car’s lateral performance: the
the best possible outputs, the most concepts of grip, balance, control, vehicle is at the apex of a corner. The more positive the value is, the more
important one being the lap time. and stability are useful. To define overall maximum acceleration that oversteer the vehicle will have; the
The barman approach has two these concepts, we need to look at the car can reach at a given speed is more negative the value is, the more
main problems. First, simply varying the yaw moment diagram. represented by Point 3. Notice that, at understeer the car will have.
inputs and observing the changes in this point, the vehicle has a positive Take a look now at Point 1
outputs without understanding the The metrics resultant yaw moment. In other of Figure 1. This point is the
real reason behind those changes Figure 1 shows a typical constant- words, when the vehicle is at the limit intersection of the isolines of zero
can be very time consuming, since it speed yaw moment diagram. As of its performance, the tyre forces steering wheel angle and zero chassis
involves lots of trial and error. There explained in previous articles in this and moments result in too much yaw slip angle. It represents the car going
must be other methods that allow series, the yaw moment diagram is moment. As mentioned in previous in a straight line, where both lateral
There must be other methods that allow us to walk less in the dark
Figure 1: Yaw moment diagram at constant speed with CG slip angle (ß) and steering (б) isolines. We are usually interested in only a few points on the diagram
Degrees of stability
The concept of stability is derived
in an analogous way. We start off
again with the vehicle going in a
straight line (Point 1 of Figure 1),
then we give it an increase in one
degree of chassis slip angle (β). This
increase come from a disturbance
such as a bump on the track, a gust
of wind or, worse, another car hitting
it. Wherever the disturbance comes
from, we always want the vehicle to
go back to its trajectory instead of
spinning. In other words, the tyres
must generate forces and moments
which will result in a negative yaw
moment, and rotate the car back to
its original slip angle. The stability
is defined as the change in yaw
moment as you vary the chassis
slip angle by one degree. Therefore,
it represents the capability of the
vehicle to return to its trajectory after
a disturbance in its orientation. In the
yaw moment diagram, this situation Figure 3: Control and
!.' stability can be applied at any point
&/++ $# of the
" yaw moment diagram. This shows 400Nm of yaw
/2#
is represented by Figure 2b. The moment variation at four degrees of CG slip angle
" 1+ 1,(ß) with a steering angle variation (б) from 60 to 61 degrees
stability is calculated as the variation
of yaw moment as between two centre, but to any point of the yaw these calculations to data and and quickly make decisions about
lines of constant chassis slip angle moment diagram. Figure 3, for comments from the driver. which parameters of the car will be
(β) as you go along a line of constant example, shows the calculation of changed. In the consulting projects
steering wheel angle (in this case, δ = control for a steering wheel angle of Driver input that OptimumG performs at the
0). In the given example, the stability 60-degree and a chassis slip angle During a free practice session, racetrack, we always ask the race
is equal to -3156Nm/deg. The vehicle of four degrees, which can represent an engineer usually gets many drivers to rate the performance of
is more stable when the stability an instant when the vehicle is comments from the driver about the vehicle, at each corner (or even
value is lower (i.e. more negative). approaching the apex of the corner. the vehicle and various parts of at each section of each of the
It is important to mention that Once we have very clear notions the track. The job of the engineer corners), in three criteria:
the notions of control and stability of vehicle balance, grip, control, and is to be able to gather all these 1. Control. How well, for a given
can be applied not only to the stability, we can start associating comments (as well as vehicle data) amount of steering input, the
Target values
Let’s imagine a situation where the driver
rates the car control as 4/10 and the engineer
knows that, according to simulations, the
current vehicle set-up has a control of
150Nm/deg. By accessing the history of
previous testing sessions, the engineer finds
out that the driver had given a rating of 9/10
!.&
Figure 4: Accessing simulation data."! !
This shows the effect of various $on'
set-up parameters entry control for a set-up that had a control of 220Nm/
deg, so he knows what his target value is. The
question now is; which changes will he have
to make to reach the target value? This is
where simulation data becomes crucial.
Being able to access and visualise
simulation data is as important as performing
the simulation itself. A chart such as Figure 4,
for example, can help the engineer not only
decide which parameter to change, but also
the amount of the change. Since much of the
behaviour of the car is often very non-linear,
it is also interesting to calculate metrics as
you vary certain parameters within a range,
as shown in Figure 5. If you want to observe
the interaction between two parameters and
one of the metrics, a chart like that shown in
Figure 6 can be very useful. It displays the
Figure 5: Varying parameters. The effect of front and rear toe control and stability on corner entry value of balance as you very the stiffness of
!/' $ $ the front and rear anti-roll bars.
Useful tool
As I’ve been saying during this series of
articles about the yaw moment diagram,
this simulation method is not perfect for
many reasons (for example, the fact that
the calculation is steady-state based). In
fact, with so many parameters involved, all
simulation that you try won’t be perfect.
However, some of simulations can be useful,
and I can say that the yaw moment vs
/'+ (
CONTACT
Claude Rouelle
-+'+ (
Phone: + 1 303 752 1562
Enquiries: [email protected]
Website: www.optimumg.com