Search Results

The top Formula 1 and Indycar teams make large use of computer simulation to improve the performance of their cars and make the set-up process quicker on the circuit. The paper aims to present a lap time simulation software dedicated to racing cars. It is based on the background of vehicle dynamics research developed at the University of Brescia, Italy (see [1]). It should be stated that racecar dynamics is strongly non-linear due to the fact that tyres are always very near the limit of adhesion. Moreover this makes the effect of lateral load transfer fundamental for the general balance of the car. Therefore Pacejka's Magic Formula has been used for lateral force/slip while longitudinal force computation is based on the assumption of a maximum longitudinal coefficient of friction μ. This is not only for simplicity but it is also due to lack of available data. The combined case is then based on the so-called “traction circle”.

Quite a lot has been written on active suspension, the topic being suitable for theoretical studies. Unfortunately only a few applications has seen the road and even less went into production; by now very few road cars equipped with a real active suspension system are available on the market, and the interest to this kind of application seems to be reduced, perhaps because of high costs and restrictive regulations applied to the race car world. For this reason this paper presents the results of a study conducted on the vertical dynamics of a two wheel car model with a semi active suspension system, a possible alternative way to a fully active system to considerably improve suspension performance. Here the damping force of each suspension is obtained by modulating its damping factor according to opportune functions of the system state variables. This allows to reach several of the objectives achievable with a fully active suspension, without the need of a big amount of energy.