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Steering System for SAE Baja

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Steering System for SAE Baja Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Undergraduate Honors Theses 2019-03-15 Steering System for SAE Baja Dallin Colgrove Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Colgrove, Dallin, "Steering System for SAE Baja" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 64. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/64 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Honors Thesis STEERING SYSTEM FOR SAE BAJA By Dallin Colgrove Submitted to Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of graduation requirements for University Honors Department of Mechanical Engineering Brigham Young University April 2019 Advisor: Yuri Hovanski Honors Coordinator: Brian Jensen ABSTRACT STEERING SYSTEM FOR SAE BAJA Dallin Colgrove Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Bachelor of Science This thesis is to study the different types of steering geometry for the BYU Baja vehicle. The main steering geometries of study are Ackermann and parallel steering geometries. Ackermann steering geometry is ideal for low speed turns. During low speed turns Ackermann steering performs better than parallel steering due to a smaller radius of turn. Parallel steering ideally is better for high speed turns, because with parallel steering the slip angle is smaller than that of Ackermann geometry. A recommendation is made to the BYU Baja team to use Ackermann steering, but still do some more analysis of parallel steering during high speed turning with the possibility of creating a hybrid steering option. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my team on the BYU Baja team for giving me my inspiration and for their help with my research for this Honors Thesis. I would also like to acknowledge my coach Yuri Hovanski for the guidance and lessons not only for this thesis, but also for how to be a better engineer. Thanks to the rest of my committee, the Honors Program, and Mechanical Engineering Department for giving me the resources, opportunity, and help for my honors thesis. Lastly, I would like to give thanks to my Dad for his guidance to help me to be the best engineer I can, and for giving me the passion of learning and working with automobiles. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... iv TABLES .............................................................................................................................. vii FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ viii 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ...........................................................................................................1 1.2 Thesis question ......................................................................................................2 2 Literature review .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................3 2.2 Ackerman Steering ................................................................................................3 2.3 Parallel Steering ....................................................................................................4 2.4 Reverse Ackermann Steering ................................................................................5 3 Methodolody ................................................................................................................ 6 3.1 Ackermann Steering ..............................................................................................6 3.2 Parallel Steering ....................................................................................................7 3.3 Percent Ackermann ...............................................................................................8 4 Results and Discussions............................................................................................... 9 4.1 Low speed turning .................................................................................................9 4.2 High speed turning ..............................................................................................10 4.3 Percent Ackermann .............................................................................................12 iv 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 14 5.1 Future work .........................................................................................................14 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 17 Appendix A ....................................................................................................................... 18 Appendix B ....................................................................................................................... 20 Appendix C ....................................................................................................................... 26 v vi TABLES TABLE 1: THE PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE 2019 BYU BAJA VEHICLE. ....................................................... 7 vii FIGURES FIGURE 1 DIAGRAM SHOWING ACKERMANN, PARALLEL, AND REVERSE ACKERMANN STEERING GEOMETRIES. PHOTO TAKEN FROM VEHICLE DYNAMICS THEORY AND APPLICATION BY REZA N. JAZER. PAGE 395. ...................................................................................................................................1 FIGURE 2 REPRESENTATION OF THE CALCULATIONS DONE FOR ACKERMANN STEERING. DRAWING TAKEN FROM VEHICLE DYNAMICS BY JAZER P. 379 ..........................................................................................6 FIGURE 3: PERCENT ACKERMANN THOUGH STEERING RANGE OF THE BYU BAJA VEHICLE FOR BOTH ACKERMANN AND PARALLEL STEERING GEOMETRIES. THIS MODEL WAS DEVELOPED WITH THE GEOMETRIES CURRENTLY ON THE BAJA VEHICLE AND WERE DEVELOPED WITH THE SHARK LOTUS SOFTWARE. ..........................................................................................................................................12 FIGURE 4: CONCEPT OF HOW A HYBRID OPTION WOULD CHANGE THE GEOMETRY FROM A PARALLEL STEERING MODEL TO AN ACKERMANN STEERING MODEL .................................................................15 FIGURE 5 CONCEPT OF A CAM FOR A STEERING RACK SYSTEM ....................................................................16 viii 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) puts on an international competition between universities where students build, engineer, and ultimately test an off-road buggy called the Baja. This vehicle’s sole purpose is to be built as a prototype that could be sold by a company as a “hobbyist vehicle.” Many of the things that are judged upon at the competition is its performance over a variety of tests. These tests include a hill climb, rock crawl or suspension course, acceleration test, maneuverability course, and a four- hour endurance race. A critical feature to perform well on many of these tests is based on the vehicle’s ability to turn. In previous years, the BYU Baja team has designed and tested various steering geometries. The most common steering geometries are Ackermann steering, reverse Ackermann steering, and parallel Figure 1 Diagram showing Ackermann, parallel, and reverse Ackermann steering geometries. Photo taken from Vehicle steering as shown in figure 1. Of Dynamics Theory and Application by Reza N. Jazer. Page 395. these steering geometries the Baja team currently uses Ackerman steering, and has 1 considered parallel steering in the past. Ackerman steering is the type of steering on a vehicle that when the driver turns, the inside wheel has a greater turning angle than the outer wheel as shown in figure 1. Reverse Ackermann is the opposite where the outside turns in more than the inside wheel. Lastly, parallel steering is where both wheels turn at the same angle. The changes of the angles on the wheels change how the vehicle performs when turning. How that is will be discussed more in literature review section. 1.2 Thesis question It is important for the BYU Baja team to continue to obtain a competitive edge, and to try and perform the best as possible to compete with the top schools in the world at the SAE Baja competition events. To fulfill this goal, understanding and improving the vehicle’s performance is critical. Analyzing which steering geometry is best for the Baja vehicle will maximize its performance and ability in several of the dynamic events. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze which steering system is the best choice to use for the Baja vehicle with the intent of maximizing its performance at competition, and then give a recommendation to the BYU Baja team. 2 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction In the literature on steering systems
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