Energy efficient cornering : Simulation and verification

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this master thesis is to study the energy efficiency of a vehicle when it is cornering. To achieve this, a Simulink model was built from a simple basic bicycle model and theoretically validated. This model was then analysed and successively improved by adding velocity and yaw moment control. A study of the vehicle model behaviour by changing parameters such as cornering stiffness and centre of gravity position was the nconducted. The traction force needed for a constant radius was calculated and methods such as torque vectoring have been tested using the model to obtain the lowest traction force. The model was compared with different vehicle types and further validated by comparing the simulation results with experimental data acquired from a field test. The rolling resistance and aerodynamic resistance were taken into account when the model was validated with the experimental data and the result suggest that by distributing the required traction force (using torque vectoring between inner and outer driven wheels) the energy efficiency could be improved by 10%. This report ends with recommendations for future work.