Vehicle Body Side-Slip Angle Evaluation and Comparison for Compact Class Vehicles

Compact class vehicles form a large share of transport in these days’ European cities; therefore the stability of such kind of vehicles is an important issue of road traffic safety. In the article, the results of experimental research on compact class vehicle stability and road holding experimentally as well as computer modelling are evaluated. A double lane-change manoeuvre is selected for testing (ISO 3888-2). The information obtained from sensors was recorded by the “Corrsys-Datron DAS-3” data collecting device and then processed in common time scale upon applying “TurboLab” computer program. During the experiment, the vehicle’s lateral acceleration, body oscillations and its rates were measured. The projections of longitudinal and lateral velocities were measured as well. According to the calculation method, the angles of each vehicle’s side-slip were calculated. The vehicle’s lateral acceleration, roll angle and roll rate objectively assess the comfort and freedom of movement of the sprung mass, but the stability of the vehicle is directly represented by the angle of the side slip.