Transient handling analysis, focusing on axle side force

The transient handling characteristics are becoming more and more important aspect in the recent development of vehicle dynamics performance. One of the reasons for it is that the handling performances that fall into “feeling” category have been getting increasingly important. Many of the “feeling” characteristics are more tightly related to transient characteristics than to steady state characteristics. Not only in “feeling” category performance, but also in the vehicle safety field, transient handling is getting more and more important. An example is the instability due to “fish hook” steering input. It is an instability phenomenon, which takes place typically at highway speeds. At such a speed, a periodical steering input at around 1 ~ 1.5 Hz can cause vehicle instability. It is again a highly transient phenomenon, where the coupling of lateral-, yawing- and rolling motions play an important role. In response to those needs, the industry has been promoting a lot of research activities. Study on the subjective/objective correlation, study on the quantitative measurement of transient vehicle behavior, development of transient simulation environment are some of the examples. This research was planned and carried out having the above mentioned background.