Windshield wiper system design
by B.S. Hsu, S.F. Ling
International Journal of Vehicle Design (IJVD), Vol. 11, No. 1, 1990

Abstract: The windshield wiper system of passenger cars comprises three major subsystems: two wipers and their arms; a mechanism; and an electric motor. This paper presents a study on the dynamic coupling effect among these subsystems for the purpose of a better system design. Each wiper arm is modelled as a rotating cantilever beam with a lumped mass (the mass of the wiper) at its tip where a friction force is applied. The mechanism, which transmits power from the motor to the roots of the wiper arms, is treated as two connected four-bar linkages with rigid members. The electric motor drives the system with varying rotating torque and speed as its load due to the motion of arms and linkages changes with time. Numerical integration is employed to solve this rather complicated system. At every time interval of the integration, torque and acceleration at the fixed joints generated by the motor and the linkages are matched by iterative comparison with those produced by wiper arms. The application to a 1800cc passenger car shows that the proposed model simulates the system better as it provides more realistic prediction of motor current, motor load and wiper motion.

Online publication date: Mon, 26-May-2014

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