Title: The effect of camber control on power consumption during handling manoeuvres

Authors: Herman A. Hamersma; Janu Botha; Andries Peenze; Schalk Els

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa ' Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa ' Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa ' Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield, 0028, South Africa

Abstract: Vehicle power consumption is receiving widespread attention in the industry. One of the approaches is to include camber control to reduce power loss during cornering. This approach changes the camber angle during cornering, reducing the steering angle needed. The published literature is limited to semi-empirical tyre models and simplified vehicle models. This investigation uses a physics-based tyre model and a full vehicle model to verify if the power savings reported in the literature are indeed achievable. The simulation results indicate that the reported power savings are indeed possible, but that the power saved during normal driving is limited. It is concluded that camber control is not suited to reducing power consumption during normal driving. A deeper investigation revealed that the use of radial tyres is one explanation for this finding. Camber control is thus not recommended as a power-saving strategy for practical applications using traditional radial tyres.

Keywords: camber angle control; cornering losses; vehicle power saving; handling; front wheel steering; vehicle modelling and simulation; vehicle control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2023.133261

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2023 Vol.92 No.1, pp.71 - 90

Received: 26 May 2022
Received in revised form: 28 Sep 2022
Accepted: 21 Nov 2022
Published online: 04 Sep 2023 *