Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43 IIJET STUDY OF ROLL CENTER SAURABH SINGH*, SAGAR SAHU** *, **Mechanical engineering, NIT B ABSTRACT roll center can be an actual pivot point or a virtual point in space and they don’t essentially lie along the center line of As our solar car aims to bring new green technology to cope the vehicle. SAE’s definition indicates, if the roll centers of a up with the greatest challenge of modern era i.e. energy car are at the same height as the sprung mass’ Center of demand and ESVC is a racing championship of such Gravity (CG), it will not reveal any body roll during a corner innovative technology that bring thrills on speed but in an a line connecting the rear suspension roll Centre with that of ecofriendly way. As much it is important to bring speed to the front is called the roll axis. car so as equally important to design and fabricate vehicle design so that it can withstand high speeds to let it run and flow smoothly. That is the work of suspension system to keep the optimal tire contact with ground and keep passengers comfortable and one of the most important aspect of which is Roll Center. The vehicle roll center is a key parameter that influences the vehicle roll dynamics. The roll center is considered an important factor in determining overall vehicle ride and handling quality it is important to know how to find Fig. 1: Roll Center roll center for different type of suspension. So it becomes important for vehicle discuss roll center with respect to different suspension parameter and relation between roll center and center of gravity with changing vertical position of roll center for front and rear suspension system. I. INTRODUCTION Roll center of a vehicle is the imaginary but accurately defined point on the center-line of the car around which the Fig. 2: Roll Axis Location vehicle rolls, at which the cornering forces in the suspension system are transferred to the vehicle body. The location of Reason to find the Roll Center of a car is about predicting the geometric roll center is solely dictated by the suspension how the car reacts while cornering. Knowing where the roll geometry. The official definition of roll center are- center is in the front of the car gives an idea of what the wheels will be doing as the nose of the car dives under •SAE: a point in the transverse plane through any pair of braking or leans in a corner. Without roll center information, wheels at which a transverse force may be applied to the one cannot estimate how much the camber angle of the front sprung mass without causing it to suspension roll. wheels will change during suspension travel or how much body roll will be present while cornering. Roll center is used •Kinematics: the roll is the point about which the body can to determine the stiffness of spring, ride frequency and roll without any lateral movement at either of the wheel various suspension parameters and geometries that will help contact areas. to keep optimal tire contact in both the conditions of ride( a The roll Centre can be high off the ground, low, or even car’s ability to smooth out a bumpy road) and handling ( a below the ground. Depending on the type of suspension, the car’s ability to safely accelerate , brake and corner.) 38 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43 IIJET So, the distance between roll center and CoG should be minimum but simultaneously, it is important to keep the minimum distance of roll center from ground in order to minimize jacking forces. To keep our solar car stable in order to negotiate any turn at high speed and keeping above factors in mind, we have performed following iteration on LOTUS SHARK SUSPENSION SOFTWARE and obtained satisfactory value of roll center distance under permissible limit as per our calculations. Fig. 3- Physics Behind Roll Center If N1 and N2 are the normal reaction forces of tires during cornering of vehicle and 2a is the front track width of car, the distance between center of gravity (CoG) and roll center (RC) is L, then to avoid rolling :- N1*a – N2a > F*L ------------------ (1) Where F = mv2/r (centrifugal force) N1 = static normal + lateral load Fig. 5- Results obtained Reaction transfer N2= static normal – lateral load Many of such iterations were performed in order to determine Reaction transfer the appropriate height of roll center from ground. Where, lateral load = m*f*(L+x)/ 2a Transfer Roll-Centre Determination Here m= mass supported on one wheel f= lateral • Aronhold–Kennedy theorem of three centers: when three acceleration of car L+x= height of CoG from ground 2a= track bodies move relative to one another they have three width instantaneous centers all of which lie on the same straight line. The value of L as obtained from equation 1 will give the • Iwb can be varied by angling the upper and lower maximum permissible value of distance of roll center wishbones to different positions, thereby altering the load from CoG in any dynamic condition. transfer between inner and outer wheels in a cornering In any condition, if the distance increases from the maneuver. maximum permissible value, then tire will start losing • This gives the suspension designer some control over the contact with the ground and vehicle would become handling capabilities of a vehicle. unstable. Fig. 4- Iterations performed 39 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43 IIJET Instantaneous Center:-Each wheel of an independent In case of double wishbone suspension with Parallel suspension has an instantaneous center and it is the point in horizontal links:- space that the wheel rotates about as the suspension compresses or rebounds. Point Iwb is sometimes referred to And with inclined parallel links :> as 'virtual pivot', or as 'instantaneous center'. The instantaneous center dictates scrub radius, camber change and the way forces are transmitted. This pole can give us information about how the suspension moves. The distance from point Iwb to the centerline of the tire is sometimes referred to as 'swing axle length’, it's as if the hub/wheel is attached to an imaginary swing axle which hinges around point I. Having that long swing axle would be equivalent to having the double wishbone-type suspension, but the actual construction would be very impractical. Nevertheless it Swing axle roll center is located above the “virtual” serves as a good simplification. The swing axle length, joint of the axle. together with the angle, determine the amount of camber change the wheel will experience during the compression of the suspension. A long swing axle length will cause very little camber change as the suspension is compressed, and a very short one will cause a lot. If the upper link and the A- arm are perfectly parallel to each other the intersection point Iwb is infinitely far removed from the car. This isn't a problem though: just draw line as above .these two lines should always intersect on the side of the center of the car, if The roll center for a leaf spring suspension is found by they intersect on the outside, camber change will go from negative to positive back to negative, which is not a good drawing a line between the center of the forward thing for the consistency of the traction. Having a suspension attachment point (A) and the center of the upper that gains negative camber as the body of the car rolls is shackle attachment point (B). Where that line crosses beneficial. It helps keep the tire perpendicular to the ground the vertical center line of the axle is the roll center. The during cornering which maximizes tire contact with the track. roll center height is the vertical distance from the ground to roll center Roll-Centre determination for different type of suspension:- An important point to note that the roll center will move when the suspension is compressed or lifted, that's why it's •In the case of the MacPherson strut suspension the actually an instantaneous roll center. How much this roll upper line defining Iwb is perpendicular to the strut axis center moves as the suspension is compressed is determined by the suspension arm length and the angle between the top and bottom suspension arms (or turnbuckles). As the suspension is compressed, the roll center will become higher and the moment arm (distance between roll center and the car's center of gravity (CoG in the picture)) will decrease. This will mean that as the suspension is compressed (when taking a corner, for example), the car will have less tendency to keep rolling (which is good, you do not want to roll over). When using higher grip tires, the suspension arms should be set in such a way that the roll center is raised significantly as the suspension is compressed. Running parallel, equal-length suspension arms will result in a fixed roll center. This means that as the car leans over, the moment arm will be forcing the 40 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43 IIJET car to roll more and more. As a general rule of thumb, the roll moment. Note that it is always the vertical distance higher the center of gravity of your car, the higher the roll between the CG and the RC since the forces always work center should be to avoid a roll-over.