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Civil-Comp Proceedings
ISSN 1759-3433
CCP: 94
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING COMPUTATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
Edited by:
Paper 167

Mitigation of Vehicle Collision with the Aid of Vehicle Dynamic Control Systems

M. Elkady1,2, A. Elmarakbi1 and D. Crolla1

1Department of Computing, Engineering and Technology, University of Sunderland, United Kingdom
2Automotive Engineering Department, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper
M. Elkady, A. Elmarakbi, D. Crolla, "Mitigation of Vehicle Collision with the Aid of Vehicle Dynamic Control Systems", in , (Editors), "Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Engineering Computational Technology", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 167, 2010. doi:10.4203/ccp.94.167
Keywords: dynamic analysis, control, collision mitigation, mathematical modelling, numerical simulations, vehicle dynamics.

Summary
Vehicle dynamic control systems (VDCS) play an important role in vehicle ride, stability and safety. The active suspension (AS) control system is used to improve vehicle ride performance; yaw moment control is used to achieve the desired vehicle performance for emergency maneuvers; the anti-lock braking system (ABS) is used to allow the vehicle to follow the desired steering angle while intense braking is applied; and the vehicle stopping distance can be decreased using an integrated AS control system with an ABS. On the other hand, from the recent focus on vehicle safety, the development of vehicle collision mitigation is a very important aim of researchers. Improvement of: vehicle front and side structures for energy absorption; seat belts; air bags; and advanced driver assistant systems are just some of the safety features on many vehicles.

The aims of this paper are to investigate the influence of VDCS (an AS control system and an ABS) on vehicle collision mitigation and use of the VDCS to mitigate the vehicle collision.

To further this approach, a study of vehicle dynamics together with the vehicle crash structural dynamics needs to be performed. A proposed unique vehicle dynamic-crash mathematical model is established and studied to assess the effect of vehicle dynamics characteristics on vehicle crash scenarios. Furthermore, vehicle dynamic control systems are co-simulated with the mathematical model to optimize the vehicle dynamic characteristics for imminent impact. This mathematical model integrates the braking system control ABS and the active suspension control together with crash structure modeling. In this study a half car model is proposed that consists of two spring-damper units to represent the front and rear vehicle suspension. Also, in order to design vehicle crash structures to be able to absorb the crash energy and control vehicle deformations, two nonlinear springs are proposed to represent the upper and lower members of vehicle frontal structure. This model is developed by studying the force-crush data from actual tests. Validation of the vehicle crash structure in the proposed mathematical model is achieved to ensure that the modelling of the crumple zone yields accurate results. This validation is achieved using realistic crash test data and comparing the simulated results with the results of other models. Numerical solution of the related mathematical model is obtained and simulated. Furthermore a parametric study is carried out to investigate the effect of different suspension damping and active suspension values on the vehicle collision mitigation.

It is demonstrated from the simulations that the vehicle dynamic response and crash scenario are captured and analyzed accurately. It is also shown that the mathematical model was proven to be valid and reliable, and could be used in many other crash scenarios. Also the study of the effect of the vehicle dynamics control systems show a reduction in the deformation of the vehicle's front end and vehicle body pitch angle and acceleration.

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