Measuring method for vehicle body deformation and consideration of vehicle body deformation mode

摘要

It is well known that automobile body stiffness influences steering and handling performance, but its mechanism is not clear. And the measurement technology for body deformation in driving, which is necessary to elucidate the mechanism, has not been established. On the other hand, vehicle dynamics simulation and body local deformation such as suspension attachment deformation as well as body global deformation has recently become possible. But the comparison between the simulated body deformation with the measured one was not sufficient because of the lack of measurement technology. We developed measurement technology for body deformation in driving. The distance between two points on vehicle body is measured by ring-shaped displacement sensor that is attached to the vehicle with wire connecting the measurement points. It has been shown that the measured change of body deformation by reinforcement corresponds well with the simulated one. In addition we separated the body deformation into global and local mode contribution. As a result, we found out that local deformation mode greatly affects the deformation of vehicle body including floor which is distant from suspension attachment. It can be stated that the local body deformation mode has large effect from the viewpoint of contribution to the amount of deformation, in addition to the influence on the suspension characteristics.