Accelerated Service Life Testing of Automotive Vehicles on a Test Course

The accelerated service life testing of automotive vehicles for durability to road roughness induced dynamic loads is often accomplished in the laboratory using road roughness simulation facilities [1-5]. However, such tests can also be accomplished by a carefully designed field operation on a test course [6], where both the speed of the vehicle and the roughness of die test course become variables that control the degree of the test acceleration. Field tests are generally harder to control than laboratory tests, but offer a greater degree of realism since the vehicle is fully operational during the test exactly as it will be in service. This paper formulates the criteria for accelerated service life tests on a test course, evaluates the assumptions that must be enforced to obtain valid results, and explores the sensitivity of the results to the critical test parameters, namely, the vehicle speed and the road roughness severity of the test course relative to the service environment.     

Road Surface Correction o f Tire Test Data

SUMMARY

Most tire data used for vehicle simulations is measured on laboratory test facilities. An investigation showed that the frictional properties of these laboratory machines can be quite different from actual road conditions. This paper describes a method to correct laboratory tire test data to be more like road data in order to achieve a higher degree of correlation between instrumented test- and simulation results.     

Road roughness estimation based on discrete Kalman filter with unknown input

ABSTRACT

The road roughness acts as a disturbance input to the vehicle dynamics, and causes undesirable vibrations associated with the ride and handing characteristics. Furthermore, the accurate measurement of road roughness plays a key role in better understanding a vehicle dynamic behaviour and active suspension control systems. However, the direct measurement by laser profilometer or other distance sensors are not trivial due to technical and economic issues. This study proposes a new road roughness estimation method by using the discrete Kalman filter with unknown input (DKF-UI). This algorithm is built on a quarter-car model and uses the measurements of the wheel stroke (suspension deflection), and the acceleration of the sprung mass and unsprung mass. The estimation results are compared to the measurements by laser profilometer in-vehicle test.     

Vehicle Energy Dissipation Due to Road Roughness

SUMMARY

Road roughness and surface texture are known to affect tire rolling resistance; however, little emphasis has been placed on the consequent changes in total vehicle energy dissipation due to road roughness. Thus, tire rolling resistance, in isolation from vehicle contributed losses such as dissipation in the suspension, appears to be a weakness in present evaluation procedures as they relate to fuel economy and pollution level testing: Recent work by Funfsinn and Korst has shown that substantial and measurable increases in energy losses occur for vehicles traveling on rough roads. The present investigation uses vehicle axle accelerations as a means of examining various road surfaces. Correlation with computer simulations has allowed the development of a deterministic road roughness model which permits the prediction of energy dissipation in both the tire and suspension as functions of road roughness, tire pressure, and vehicle speed. Comparison to the experiments of Korst and Funfsinn results in good agreement and shows that total rolling loss increases of up to 20 percent compared to ideal smooth roads are possible. The aerodynamic drag coefficient is also found to increase while driving on rough roads.     

The Development and Implementation of Adaptive Semi-Active Suspension Control*

SUMMARY

Using adjustable shock absorbers within vehicle suspension systems, it is possible to improve ride comfort significantly when a control strategy is applied based on the so-called skyhook principle. However, the drawback is a poorly damped wheel-hop mode which makes the road holding ability worse. Using adaptive semi-active suspension control based on the tire load variations as introduced in this paper, the trade-off between road holding and ride comfort can be relaxed. Implementation of adaptive skyhook control requires the determination of a number of important and difficult to measure states of the vehicle. This can either be accomplished by several sensors and filters or by a state estimator in combination with less sensors and an internal model of the vehicle. Both methods are discussed. Finally some preliminary test results are discussed.     

Analysis of wheel speed vibrations for road friction classification

ABSTRACT

With higher level of vehicle automation, it becomes increasingly important to know the maximum possible tyre forces during normal driving. An interesting method in this respect is estimating the tyre–road friction from the resonance peak in the wheel speed signal, excited by road roughness. A simulation environment using the MF-Swift tyre model is proposed, which gives insight in the correctness and functioning of this method. From implementing the estimation algorithm and considering the tyre torsional vibration system, it is concluded that frequencies and damping ratios can be estimated with reasonable accuracy and that the trends observed with changing road friction are consistent. Furthermore, the proposed simulation environment gives opportunity to investigate other issues like robustness of the estimation method to road roughness. Additionally, the tyre modelling aspect of the estimation method is analysed and improvements are proposed.     

Optimal roll control of an articulated vehicle: theory and model validation

This paper investigates optimal roll control of an experimental articulated vehicle. The test vehicle and the mathematical model used to design the control strategies are presented. The vehicle model is validated against experimental data from the test vehicle in passive configuration. The initial controller design, performed by Sampson (Sampson, D.J.M. and Cebon, D., 2003a, Achievable roll stability of heavy road vehicles. Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs, Part D, J. Automobile Engineering, 217(4), 269–287), is reviewed and adapted for the experimental vehicle. The effect of not controlling all the axles on the vehicle is investigated and a variable vehicle speed controller is designed by interpolating between constant speed controllers. Substantial reduction in normalized load transfer is achieved for a range of manoeuvres, both in steady-state and transient conditions.     

远程参数控制技术在轿车车身结构动强度试验中的应用

远程参数控制技术（RPC）是一种在室内台架复现实际道路行驶状况的试验手段。通过对轿车车身实际道路载荷的采集，采用电液伺服道路模拟系统和远程参数控制系统进行迭代（迭代控制目标为轴头加速度信号，对不同路面的载荷谱分别进行迭代，最后将迭代的结果合并），得到用于台架试验的加载谱。在此结果上实现室内轿车车身结构动强度试验。由此对远程参数控制技术在汽车试验中的应用进行了一定的研究和探索。     

Analysis of Automatic Steering Control for Highway Vehicles with Look-down Lateral Reference Systems

SUMMARY

In this paper, steering control for passenger cars on automated highways is analyzed, concentrating on look-down reference systems. Extension of earlier experimental results for low speed to highway speed is shown to be non-trivial. The limitations of pure output-feedback of lateral vehicle displacement from the road reference are examined under practical constraints and performance requirements like robustness, maximum lateral error and comfort. The in-depth system analysis directly leads to a new alternative design direction which allows to preserve look-ahead reference systems for highway speed automatic driving.     

Road Surface Correction o f Tire Test Data

Most tire data used for vehicle simulations is measured on laboratory test facilities. An investigation showed that the frictional properties of these laboratory machines can be quite different from actual road conditions. This paper describes a method to correct laboratory tire test data to be more like road data in order to achieve a higher degree of correlation between instrumented test- and simulation results.     

Advanced vehicle dynamics of heavy trucks with the perspective of road safety

ABSTRACT

This paper presents state-of-the art within advanced vehicle dynamics of heavy trucks with the perspective of road safety. The most common accidents with heavy trucks involved are truck against passenger cars. Safety critical situations are for example loss of control (such as rollover and lateral stability) and a majority of these occur during speed when cornering. Other critical situations are avoidance manoeuvre and road edge recovery. The dynamic behaviour of heavy trucks have significant differences compared to passenger cars and as a consequence, successful application of vehicle dynamic functions for enhanced safety of trucks might differ from the functions in passenger cars. Here, the differences between vehicle dynamics of heavy trucks and passenger cars are clarified. Advanced vehicle dynamics solutions with the perspective of road safety of trucks are presented, beginning with the topic vehicle stability, followed by the steering system, the braking system and driver assistance systems that differ in some way from that of passenger cars as well.     

汽车驾驶员车速控制模式的模拟研究

系统地对汽车驾驶员在一定行车环境中的安全性认知与车速控制的决策、推理过程进行了定量研究,通过进行一系列勘测、测试和心理评价试验,应用模糊集合、模糊统计试验、模糊控制和模糊逻辑推理等分析方法,建立了描述汽车驾驶员在既定道路条件下行车时基于安全性考量的逻辑推理规则和车速控制模型,最后进行了相应的实测验证。模拟预测结果与实测结果吻合较好,证明了研究所采用方法和建立模型的正确性。     

Experimental Study of System Optimization for Suppression of Vehicle Vibration

SUMMARY

The improvements of ride comfort and vehicle maneuverability in the vehicle design can be achieved by using an active suspension. However, the problems in such a control are the complex control logic because of the control laws incompatible with the improvements of ride comfort and maneuverability, and the cost increase because of various sensors to be attached. Therefore, we examined the control abilities of ride comfort and maneuverability on a unique control law using frequency shaped LQ, and controlled the characteristic of the contact between tire and road without a road displacement sensor     

车辆噪声与城市道路路面平整度关系的试验研究

主要研究了城市道路平整度可能对机动车辆噪声级产生的影响。采用IRI作为道路平整度的计量单位,并在上海的一些城市道路上组织了沥青路面和水泥路面两类试验。首先,在满足试验条件的道路上进行平整度的量测;其次,在试验道路的测点上采集车辆以特定速度驶过的最大噪声级。通过对试验数据的分析,发现车辆以相同速度行驶在平整度不同的城市道路上时,其噪声级是不同的,而且随着平整度指数的增加,机动车辆噪声级也呈上升趋势,因此城市道路平整度确实会对机动车辆噪声级产生影响。在20~50 km/h速度范围内,对于平整度相同的水泥路面和沥青路面,前者的车辆匀速行驶噪声要高于后者。     

Advanced Control Methods of Active Suspension

SUMMARY

This paper describes new control methods for the active suspension. For improving ride comfort further, preview control rule is proposed. For improving stability further, roll stiffness distribution control rule is examined by the test vehicle. Simulations and vehicle driving tests are conducted to confirm the effect of these new control methods. The results of simulations and vehicle driving tests show in our research phase that preview control can achieve a substantial improvement in ride comfort and application of roll stiffness distribution control provides a large improvement in stability     

基于径向刚度法的车辆翻新轮胎使用寿命判定

为了有效判定车辆翻新轮胎的剩余使用寿命，需要科学确定废旧轮胎胎体橡胶老化程度对翻新轮胎使用寿命的影响。在分析废旧轮胎胎体橡胶老化规律的基础上，通过橡胶老化试验测试及回归分析，确定了胎体弹性模量随着橡胶老化年限增加近似线性增大的影响规律；结合计算机仿真技术及试验测试技术，基于轮胎径向刚度法提出了翻新轮胎剩余使用寿命不安全系数计算方法，其计算数值大小与翻新轮胎径向刚度和新轮胎径向刚度之差成正比，与新轮胎径向刚度值成反比；构建了由橡胶加速老化系统、弹性模量测取系统、承载-变形计算机模拟系统和承载-变形测试系统等组成的翻新轮胎剩余使用寿命判定系统；基于径向刚度法和判定系统提出了车辆翻新轮胎剩余使用寿命判定规则，确定了翻新轮胎胎体剩余使用寿命判定具体流程；根据剩余使用寿命不安全系数计算方法和判定规则，将翻新轮胎确定为可正常使用、需降速使用和需报废处理3个级别，并利用11.00R22.5载重车辆翻新轮胎进行了剩余使用寿命判定与评价，依据判定规则分别计算了不同使用年限3条翻新轮胎的剩余使用寿命不安全系数，确定出3条翻新轮胎所对应的级别，判定与评价结论与实际使用情况相吻合。研究结果表明：废旧轮胎胎体橡胶老化程度对翻新轮胎剩余使用寿命影响显著，翻新轮胎径向刚度与剩余使用寿命之间存在较大影响关系；废旧轮胎胎体橡胶老化程度越严重和径向刚度越大，翻新轮胎的剩余使用寿命将会越短。     

Transaction of the International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics (IAVSD)

SUMMARY

Automatic steering control algorithm has been proposed, which uses the motion of objects in a visual image (Optical Flow) obtained from an ITV camera looking ahead in the situation without forward vehicles. This algorithm is improved to be applicable to the situation in which the forward tracking course is invisible owing to the interfarence of the forward vehicles. The adjustment of the control parameters against the change in vehicle speed is confirmed by the computer simulation experiments.     

Vehicle Energy Dissipation Due to Road Roughness

Road roughness and surface texture are known to affect tire rolling resistance; however, little emphasis has been placed on the consequent changes in total vehicle energy dissipation due to road roughness. Thus, tire rolling resistance, in isolation from vehicle contributed losses such as dissipation in the suspension, appears to be a weakness in present evaluation procedures as they relate to fuel economy and pollution level testing: Recent work by Funfsinn and Korst has shown that substantial and measurable increases in energy losses occur for vehicles traveling on rough roads. The present investigation uses vehicle axle accelerations as a means of examining various road surfaces. Correlation with computer simulations has allowed the development of a deterministic road roughness model which permits the prediction of energy dissipation in both the tire and suspension as functions of road roughness, tire pressure, and vehicle speed. Comparison to the experiments of Korst and Funfsinn results in good agreement and shows that total rolling loss increases of up to 20 percent compared to ideal smooth roads are possible. The aerodynamic drag coefficient is also found to increase while driving on rough roads.     

基于汽车车身垂直加速度的典型道路路面谱识别研究

以1/4汽车振动模型为研究对象,推导出以汽车车身垂直振动加速度作为输入信号、路面不平度作为输出信号的数学模型及其模拟图,并利用MATLAB/SIMULINK搭建系统模型求解路面不平度,对路面不平度进行谱估计完成路谱的识别。通过实际测试和数据处理分析,说明该方法理论依据正确可行,可以为虚拟样机仿真路面的生成提供数据支持。