Effects of Tire and Anti-Roll Bar Stiffness on VehicleHandling

Handling is one of the important criteria in evaluating vehicle dynamics. Improving the handlingfirst requires defining sub-targets and their acceptable ranges, and then finding the under-control parameters with the most effects on sub-targets. These are the focus of this researchthat is performed for an N۲ pickup truck. After simulating the under-study (default)vehicle and its benchmark (target) vehicle, standard handling tests according to ISO are performedto compare the results of the two vehicles. Constant radius cornering and step steertests are identified as appropriate representatives of the handling. Roll angle, understeer coefficient,lateral deviation, and yaw rate are defined as sub-targets. Tires and anti-roll bar stiffnessesare selected to examine their effects on sub-targets. Sensitivity analysis based on a designof experiment method and analysis of variance is a tool to examine the effectiveness ofparameters on the outputs. The complicated nonlinear vehicle model is substituted with somequadratic regression models to be used for optimization by the response surface method. Theobtained optimum solution is verified using the nonlinear model and it is illustrated thatchanging the selected parameters can make the handling like the benchmark vehicle