STABILITY OF THREE WHEELED MOTOR VEHICLE

Abstract

On the basis of a simple model considered in this work, the lateral stability of a three wheeled motor-vehicle has been investigated. The simple model consists of two mass system. The various three wheeled motor vehicle parameters such as mass and inertia of the front and rear systems are obtained, by the actual laboratory measurements on a.VIKRAM - 410 three• wheeled motor-vehicle. Moreover, static and dynamic tests are also conducted to measure various stiffnesses and damping ratios of both the front and rear systems of the vehicle. To analyse the lateral stability of the vehicle, a computer programm has been developed using the equations of motion of the vehicle taking the two mass system model. In this dissertation work, the effect of various parameters such as steering damping, castor trail and rake angle have been studied to improve the stability of- the three-wheeled motor-vehicle in lateral motion.. The study conducted, indicates that the vehicle parameters can be optimized to give better vehicle dynamic behaviour and lateral stability