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In recent decades suspension kinematics and compliance (K&C) testing has become a support-testing standard in the vehicle industry, providing invaluable data for suspension design and vehicle dynamics simulations. But in practical ride and handling tuning/development work, many readily available K&C test measurements have yet to achieve the empirical significance of traditional derived parameters such as roll center heights and roll stiffness distributions. In an attempt to emphasize the practical usefulness of K&C test data, this paper presents several methods by which this data can directly assist with chassis tuning and development. Traditional K&C data interpretation methods are discussed and new concepts such as “yaw efficiency” are developed and presented.

This paper presents the development and experimental verification of a steady-state, half-vehicle cornering model. The goal of this effort is to develop a model which retains the physical insight inherent to simple models, while providing a higher degree of accuracy. The Force-based roll center (FBRC) model is presented as an evolution of traditional kinematic roll center (KRC) modeling. The FBRC model replaces the suspension with moveable wheel-chassis instant center pairs, and incorporates tire force/slip models. The FBRC model iteratively solves for vehicle position and loading during a steady-state cornering maneuver. Experimental verification of the FBRC vehicle model shows modeling accuracy up to tire saturation limits, which is well beyond the 0.4 g accuracy limit of KRC models.