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Road Vehicle Performance

Highway engineering

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chrisjhon friginal
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26 views27 pages

Road Vehicle Performance

Highway engineering

Uploaded by

chrisjhon friginal
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Road Vehicle

Performance
HIGHWAY AND RAILROAD ENGINEERING
• Understanding vehicle performance serves two
main purposes: it helps accommodate a wide range
of vehicles, from sports cars to heavy trucks, in
highway design and assists in evaluating the impact
of new vehicle technologies on existing guidelines.
• As vehicle technology advances rapidly, it becomes
crucial to update highway design guidelines more
frequently and deepen understanding of the
principles of vehicle performance.
Tractive effort (or thrust) and resistance are the
two main opposing forces that determine a vehicle's
straight-line performance.
• Tractive effort is the force available at the road
surface to move the vehicle (lb)
• Resistance is the force that opposes its motion (lb).
Resistance comes from three primary sources:
o (1) aerodynamic resistance
o (2) rolling resistance from the tire-road interface
o (3) grade or gravitational resistance.
TRACTIVE EFFORT
AERODYNAMIC
RESISTANCE
• Aerodynamic resistance significantly affects vehicle
performance, especially at high speeds.
• Proper aerodynamic design is essential, especially in
racing and sports cars.
• Aerodynamic resistance originates from several
sources:
❑Over 85% comes from turbulent air flow around the
vehicle, particularly at the rear.
❑About 12% comes from air friction passing over the
vehicle’s surface.
❑Approximately 3% is due to air flow through
components such as radiators and air vents.
The drag coefficient is measured from empirical data
either from wind tunnel experiments or actual field
tests
The horsepower (hp ) required to overcome
aerodynamic resistance
ROLLING RESISTANCE
Rolling resistance is the force that opposes a vehicle’s motion due to
internal mechanical friction and the interaction of pneumatic tires
with the roadway surface. Three key factors influence rolling
resistance:
• Tire and roadway rigidity: Hard, smooth, and dry surfaces produce
less rolling resistance, while softer surfaces cause more tire
penetration and resistance.
• Tire conditions: Proper tire inflation reduces rolling resistance on
hard surfaces but increases it on soft surfaces. Higher tire
temperatures reduce resistance due to increased flexibility.
• Vehicle speed: Higher speeds cause more tire flexing and
vibration, increasing rolling resistance.
By inspection, the rolling resistance, in lb, will simply be the coefficient of rolling resistance
multiplied by W cos θg, the vehicle weight acting normal to the roadway surface. For most
highway applications θg is quite small, so it can be assumed that cos θg = 1, giving the
equation for rolling resistance (Rrl) as:
The coefficient of rolling resistance for road vehicles operating on
paved surfaces is approximated as:
From this, the amount of power required to
overcome rolling resistance is:
GRADE RESISTANCE
Grade resistance is simply the gravitational force (the component parallel to
the roadway) acting on the vehicle. The expression for grade resistance (Rg)
is:

As in the development of the rolling resistance formula, highway grades are


usually very small, so sin θg ≅ tan θg.
Maximum Tractive Effort
No matter how much force a vehicle's engine generates,
there is a limit beyond which additional force only causes the
tires to spin rather than overcome resistance or increase
speed. This point is known as the maximum tractive effort,
and it is the limit beyond which tire spinning begins. The
factors that determine this point are illustrated in a force and
moment-generating diagram, which shows the balance
between forces acting on the vehicle and the tires' grip on
the road surface. The friction between the tires and the road
is key to maintaining traction and preventing tire slip.
The maximum tractive effort:
For a rear-wheel–drive vehicle

For front-wheel–drive vehicle

coefficient of road adhesion : (μ)

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