Title: Influence of size scale on stable steering characteristic in miniature electric vehicle

Authors: Hongyu Shu; Denghua Yin; Qiping Chen; Kai Ren

Addresses: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China ' State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China ' School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, East China Jiaotong University, Nanchang 330013, China ' State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

Abstract: To research the influence of size scale on stable steering characteristic (SSC) of the miniature electric vehicle (MEV), based on multi-body system dynamics and ADAMS/View software, multi-body system model of MEV was established, and steady circular was simulated and analysed. Compared with traditional large-size scale vehicles, the changes of vertical load and lateral acceleration can lead to a great change in SSC that the MEV at half-load is 'understeer', whereas the higher the lateral acceleration is the more significant it is; the MEV at full-load is 'oversteer' under low lateral acceleration, but 'understeer' for high lateral acceleration. After comparative simulation analyses of models with different sizes, study results indicate that the smaller the MEV's size scale is, the more the SSC can change owing to the changes of vertical load and lateral acceleration. The study results can provide a theoretical guidance for the design of the MEV.

Keywords: MEV; miniature electric vehicles; size scale; SSC; stable steering characteristics; multi-body system dynamics; simulation; dynamic modelling; vertical load; lateral acceleration; oversteering; understeering.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEHV.2013.056306

International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 2013 Vol.5 No.2, pp.155 - 165

Received: 31 May 2013
Accepted: 03 Jul 2013

Published online: 09 Sep 2013 *

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