Scaled Experiment with Dimensional Analysis for Vehicle Lateral Dynamics Maneuver

Abstract

Scaled experiment with dimensional analysis is frequently used when large scaled experiment is limited due to the cost or high risk. Vehicle lateral dynamics tests require a lot of effort and resources. In particular, experiments of vehicles with possible accidents or excessive maneuvering have a high risk and thus require lots of resources. Therefore, those vehicle dynamics tests are frequently performed virtually using computer software. Nevertheless, experiments are much more appealing to prove the performance or efficacy of newly developed system or algorithms. Scaled vehicle experiments are a good alternative way to evaluate the developed system with a low risk and cost. For consistency between real sized experiments and scaled experiments, many parameters should be scaled but some natural parameters are cannot be scaled. The gravitational acceleration, which is an important factor for tire lateral slip, cannot be scaled down as the vehicle size is reduced and thus the usual scaled vehicles such as RC cars show non-slipping tire motions. We suggest some remedies to avoid such unrealistic behaviors in scaled vehicle tests.