Vehicle Motion Analysis in Relation to Vehicle Safety

The influence of vehicle handling on the possible avoidance of accident situations is discussed. lit is shown that accident reconstruction at present does not provide the necessary information to relate the cause of accidents to the lack of road worthiness of vehicles. It follows that the vehicle behavior in proximity of its performance limit must be determined in order to infer its accident avoidance potential.

The paper presents a review of the state-of-the-art of vehicle modeling, simulation of vehicle maneuvers and full scale testing. The application of the direct method of the stability theory is suggested as a possible means of obtaining performance limit envelopes which are necessary for establishing standards of the performance of vehicles.     

On the Influence of Weight Reduction and Weight Distribution on Vehicle Handling, Ride and Performance

This investigation discusses the dynamic characteristics of a full sized passenger automobile of the 5000-6000 lb weight class relative to Vehicle Handling, Performance and Ride Quality. Weight and moment of inertia parameters are introduced to modify weights and mass moment of inertia judicially and the dynamic behavior is investigated on the basis of the above mentioned criteria. Finally weight reductions at discrete locations along the vehicle length axis are contemplated and the dynamic behavior is determined relative to the above criteria. The overall geometry of the vehicle is considered as being fixed for all weight modifications.