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Steering System
STEERING SYSTEM
The function of steering is to steer the front wheel in response to driver command inputs in order to provide overall directional control of the vehicle. The factors kept in mind while designing the steering system were Simplicity Safety Requiring minimum steer effort Economical
Steering geometry
Ackerman
The Ackerman Steering Principle defines the geometry that is applied to all vehicles (two or four wheel drive) to enable the correct turning angle of the steering wheels to be generated when negotiating a corner or a curve. When a car is travelling around a corner (the red lines represent the path that the wheels follow) the inside wheels of the car follow a smaller diameter circle than the outside wheels. If both the wheels were turned by the same amount, the inside wheel would scrub (effectively sliding sideways) and lessen the effectiveness of the steering. This tire scrubbing, which also creates unwanted heat and wear in the tire, can be eliminated by turning the inside wheel at a greater angle than the outside one.
Steering System
The difference in the angles of the inside and outside wheels may be better understood by studying the diagram, where we have marked the inside and outside radius that each of the tires passes through. The Inside Radius (Ri) and the Outside Radius (Ro) are dependent on a number of factors including the car width and the tightness of the corner the car is intended to pass through. Aligning both wheels in the proper direction of travel creates consistent steering without undue wear and heat being generated in either of the tires.
The steering arms in the diagram to the left are straight and parallel to the sides of the vehicle, which would create a situation where equal movement of the steering servo would produce equal angular movement of the wheels. As the steering arm pivot point (A) is vertically aligned with the king pin pivot point (B) when the wheel is pointing straight ahead, the same amount of movement to the Left or to the Right moves the steering arm pivot point the same vertical distance forward of its starting point.
Steering System
The steering arms in the image to the left are angled inwards to create a means for the wheel angles to change at a different rate. This is the basis of the Ackerman Steering Principle and creates this unequal angular movement of the wheels. As the steering arms are angled, the pivot point (A) is not vertically aligned and is, in a straight ahead position, part way round the circle. Because of this, a Right movement of the steering arm will cause the pivot point to move a greater distance in the forward direction than a Left movement of the steering arm.
An important point worth noting is that this unequal angular movement is exponential, that is, the more you turn the wheel the greater the angular difference between the wheels - otherwise both the wheels would never point forward when the car is not turning.
Steering System
more advantageous in this situation as both the inside and outside tires still have lateral grip. Reverse Ackermann steering can even be more beneficial than the parallel Ackermann geometry since the outside tire (which currently has more load due to weight transfer) is at the optimum slip angle and the inside is at a lower slip angle with less grip. This in turn allows the inside tire to have grip but less than the outside tire, decreasing the effects of under steer. 100% Ackermann is when both the wheels are travelling in concentric circles while 0% is for travelling in equal circles. Forward Ackermann geometry with 60% Ackermann was chosen for our BAJA vehicle.
Camber Camber is the angle of the wheel relative to vertical, as viewed from the front or the rear of the car. If the wheel leans in towards the chassis, it has negative camber; if it leans away from the car, it has positive camber. The cornering force that a tire can develop is highly dependent on its angle relative to the road surface, and so wheel camber has a major effect on the road holding of a car. The camber angle taken for Baja car is typically around neg. 1/2 degree as tire develops its maximum cornering force at such a small negative camber angle. This fact is due to the contribution of camber thrust, which is an additional lateral force generated by elastic deformation as the tread rubber pulls through the tire/road interface (the contact patch).
Steering System
Caster
Caster is the angle to which the steering pivot axis is tilted forward or rearward from vertical, as viewed from the side. If the pivot axis is tilted backward (that is, the top pivot is positioned farther rearward than the bottom pivot), then the caster is positive; if it's tilted forward, then the caster is negative. Positive caster tends to straighten the wheel when the vehicle is traveling forward, and thus is used to enhance straight-line stability. Due to many design considerations, it is desirable to have the steering axis of a car's wheel right at the wheel hub. If the steering axis were to be set vertical with this layout, the axis would be coincident with the tire contact patch. The trail would be zero, and no castering would be generated. The wheel would be essentially free to spin about the patch (actually, the tire itself generates a bit of a castering effect due to a phenomenon known as "pneumatic trail," but this effect is much smaller than that created by mechanical castering, so we'll ignore it here). Fortunately, it is possible to create castering by tilting the steering axis in the positive direction. With such an arrangement, the steering axis intersects the ground at a point in front of the tire contact patch, and thus the same effect as seen in the shopping cart casters is achieved. The tilted steering axis has another important effect on suspension geometry. Since the wheel rotates about a tilted axis, the wheel gains camber as it is turned. This effect is best visualized by
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Steering System
imagining the unrealistically extreme case where the steering axis would be horizontal-as the steering wheel is turned, the road wheel would simply change camber rather than direction. This effect causes the outside wheel in a turn to gain negative camber, while the inside wheel gains positive camber. These camber changes are generally favorable for cornering, although it is possible to overdo it. Most cars are not particularly sensitive to caster settings. Nevertheless, it is important to ensure that the caster is the same on both sides of the car to avoid the tendency to pull to one side. While greater caster angles serve to improve straight-line stability, they also cause an increase in steering effort. Three to five degrees of positive caster is the typical range of settings, with lower angles being used on heavier vehicles to keep the steering effort reasonable.
When a pair of wheels is set so that their leading edges are pointed slightly towards each other, the wheel pair is said to have toe-in. If the leading edges point away from each other, the pair is said to have toe-out. The amount of toe can be expressed in degrees as the angle to which the wheels are out of parallel, or more commonly, as the difference between the track widths as measured at the leading and trailing edges of the tires or wheels. Toe settings affect three major areas of performance: tire wear, straight-line stability and corner entry handling characteristics. For minimum tire wear and power loss, the wheels on a given axle of a car should point directly ahead when the car is running in a straight line. Excessive toe-in or toe-out causes the tires to
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Steering System
scrub, since they are always turned relative to the direction of travel. Too much toe-in causes accelerated wear at the outboard edges of the tires, while too much toe-out causes wear at the inboard edges.
In our Baja vehicle we use Toe in of 3-4mm.The reasons for the choice is: Toe in unlike Toe out (which encourages initiation of turn) provides straight line stability. With the steering wheel centered, toe-in causes the wheels to tend to roll along paths that intersect each other. Under this condition, the wheels are at odds with each other, and no turn results. Also when pushed down the road, a non-driven wheel will tend to toe itself out especially in rear-drive cars. Thus, toe in helps in providing stability while going down the road. The basic types of steering systems used are described below-
Steering System
Steering System
Advantages: Simple construction Economical and uncomplicated to manufacture Easy to operate due to good degree of efficiency Contact between steering rack and pinion is free of play and even internal damping is maintained Tie rods can be joined directly to the steering rack Minimal steering elasticity compliance compact (the reason why this type of steering is fitted in all European and Japanese front -wheel drive vehicles) The idler arm (including bearing) and the intermediate rod are no longer needed Easy to limit steering rack travel and therefore the steering angle
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Steering System
Most of the steering box mechanisms that drive the pitman arm have a 'dead spot' in the centre of the steering where you can turn the steering wheel a slight amount before the front wheels start to turn. This slack can normally be adjusted with a screw mechanism but it can't ever be eliminated. The traditional advantage of these systems is that they give bigger mechanical advantage and thus work well on heavier vehicles. With the advent of power steering, that has become a moot point and the steering system design is now more to do with mechanical design, price and weight. The following are the four basic types of steering box used in pitman arm systems.
In this type of steering box, the end of the shaft from the steering wheel has a worm gear attached to it. It meshes directly with a sector gear (so called because it's a section of a full gear wheel). When the steering wheel is turned, the shaft turns the worm gear, and the sector gear pivots around its axis as its teeth are moved along the worm gear. The sector gear is mounted on the cross shaft which passes through the steering box and out the bottom where it is splined, and the the pitman arm is attached to the splines. When the sector gear turns, it turns the cross shaft,
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
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Steering System
which turns the pitman arm, giving the output motion that is fed into the mechanical linkage on the track rod. The following diagram shows the active components that are present inside the worm and sector steering box. The box itself is sealed and filled with grease.
The worm and roller steering box is similar in design to the worm and sector box. The difference here is that instead of having a sector gear that meshes with the worm gear, there is a roller instead. The roller is mounted on a roller bearing shaft and is held captive on the end of the cross shaft. As the worm gear turns, the roller is forced to move along it but because it is held captive on the cross shaft, it twists the cross shaft. Typically in these designs, the worm gear is actually an hourglass shape so that it is wider at the ends. Without the hourglass shape, the roller might disengage from it at the extents of its travel.
This is by far the most common type of steering box for pitman arm systems. In a recirculating ball steering box, the worm drive has many more turns on it with a finer pitch. A box or nut is clamped over the worm drive that contains dozens of ball bearings. These loop around the worm drive and then out into a recirculating channel within the nut where they are fed back into the
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Steering System
worm drive again. Hence recirculating. As the steering wheel is turned, the worm drive turns and forces the ball bearings to press against the channel inside the nut. This forces the nut to move along the worm drive. The nut itself has a couple of gear teeth cast into the outside of it and these mesh with the teeth on a sector gear which is attached to the cross shaft just like in the worm and sector mechanism. This system has much less free play or slack in it than the other designs, hence why it's used the most. The example below shows a recirculating ball mechanism with the nut shown in cutaway so you can see the ball bearings and the recirculation channel.
Cam and lever steering boxes are very similar to worm and sector steering boxes. The worm drive is known as a cam and has a much shallower pitch and the sector gear is replaced with two studs that sit in the cam channels. As the worm gear is turned, the studs slide along the cam channels which forces the cross shaft to rotate, turning the pitman arm. One of the design features of this style is that it turns the cross shaft 90 to the normal so it exits through the side of the steering box instead of the bottom. This can result in a very compact design when necessary.
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Steering System
Instead of the bolt directly engaging the threads in the block, all of the threads are filled with ball bearings that recirculate through the gear as it turns. The balls actually serve two purposes: First, they reduce friction and wear in the gear; second, they reduce slop in the gear. Slop would be felt when you change the direction of the steering wheel -- without the balls in the steering gear, the teeth would come out of contact with each other for a moment, making the steering wheel feel loose.
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Steering System
STEERING RATIOS
The steering ratio is the ratio of how far you turn the steering wheel to how far the wheels turn. For instance, if one complete revolution (360 degrees) of the steering wheel results in the wheels of the car turning 20 degrees, then the steering ratio is 360 divided by 20, or 18:1. A higher ratio means that you have to turn the steering wheel more to get the wheels to turn a given distance. However, less effort is required because of the higher gear ratio.
Generally, lighter, sportier cars have lower steering ratios than larger cars and trucks. The lower ratio gives the steering a quicker response -- you don't have to turn the steering wheel as much to get the wheels to turn a given distance -- which is a desirable trait in sports cars. These smaller cars are light enough that even with the lower ratio, the effort required to turn the steering wheel is not excessive.
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Steering System
2. Variable ratio can also be used to tune the yaw gain or sensitivity of the vehicle to steering inputs. A high yaw gain makes the vehicle feel very nervous in high speed corners where the smallest steering wheel input results in what feels like an excessive response. 3. In electric power steering systems variable ratios allow the designer to balance the power requirements of the system. 4. Variable ratio rack and pinion systems eliminate the compromises that constant ratio systems have by allowing the designer to utilise a best fit approach for tuning the vehicle response over a wide range of driving conditions.
The steering ratio opted for our BAJA vehicle is 12:1 in support of the following reasons1. Moderate steering effort-The steering effort increases with reduction in steering ratio. The above ratio selected offers moderate steering effort required during cornering. 2. Lesser no. of lock to lock turns- With the above steering ratio, the no. of lock to lock turns of steering wheel is reduced. During cornering, the driver has to turn the steering wheel in lesser amount. Since variable steering ratios offer a much greater advantage over constant steering ratio we are trying to look for manufacturers who can supply readymade rack and pinion ratios with desired ratios. Nevo Developments and Sona Koyo steering systems,Gurgaon have been contacted with regards to the requirement. A response is awaited.
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Steering System
POWER STEERING
Part of the rack contains a cylinder with a piston in the middle. The piston is connected to the rack. There are two fluid ports, one on either side of the piston. Supplying higher-pressure fluid to one side of the piston forces the piston to move, which in turn moves the rack, providing the power assist. Power steering helps drivers steer vehicles by augmenting steering effort of the steering wheel. Hydraulic or electric actuators add controlled energy to the steering mechanism, so the driver needs to provide only modest effort regardless of conditions. Power steering helps considerably when a vehicle is stopped or moving slowly. Also, power steering provides some feedback of forces acting on the front wheels to give an ongoing sense of how the wheels are interacting with the road; this is typically called "rad feel". Representative power steering systems for cars augment steering effort via an actuator, a hydraulic cylinder, which is part of a servo system. These systems have a direct mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the linkage that steers the wheels. This means that power-steering system failure (to augment effort) still permits the vehicle to be steered using manual effort alone.
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The electronic steering control unit is capable of self-diagnosing faults by monitoring the systems inputs, outputs, and the driving current of the electric motor. If a problem occurs, the control unit turns the system off by actuating a fail-safe relay in the power unit. This eliminates all power assist, causing the system to revert back to manual steering. An in-dash EPS warning light is also illuminated to alert the driver.
TYPES OF EPS
1. COLUMN ASSIST TYPE
-The power assist unit, controller and torque sensor are attached to the steering column. -This system is compact and easy to mount on the vehicle. -This power assist system can be applied to fixed steering columns, tilt-type steering columns and other column types.
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
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Steering System
VEHICLE DYNAMICS
UNDERSTEER
Understeer is so called because the car steers less than what is wanted. Understeer can be brought on by all manner of chassis, suspension and speed issues but essentially it means that the car is losing grip on the front wheels. Typically it happens as brakes are applied and the weight is transferred to the front of the car. At this point the mechanical grip of the front tyres can simply be overpowered and they start to lose grip (for example on a wet or greasy road surface). The end result is that the car will start to take the corner very wide. In racing, that normally involves going off the outside of the corner into a catch area or on to the grass. In normal driving, it means crashing at the outside of the corner. Getting out of understeer can involve letting off the throttle in front-wheel-drive vehicles (to try to give the tyres chance to grip) or getting on the throttle in rear-wheel-drive vehicles (to try to bring the back end around).
OVERSTEER
Oversteer is the opposite of understeer. With oversteer, the car goes where it's pointed far too efficiently and ends up diving into the corner much more quickly than expected. Oversteer is brought on by the car losing grip on the rear wheels as the weight is transferred off them under braking, resulting in the rear kicking out in the corner. Without counter-steering, the end result in racing is that the car will spin and end up going off the inside of the corner backwards. In normal driving, it means spinning the car and ending up pointing back the way it came.
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It is defined as the tendency of a wheel to steer as it moves upwards into jounce. It is typically measured in degrees per meter or degrees per foot. Bump steer in many stock vehicles is usually noticed by lowering the ride height, changing the suspension geometry. This is mainly due to the tie rod not moving in the same arc motion as the control arm (upper or lower depending on suspension type). The examples below will further explain bump steer.
The picture displays the FRONT RIGHT section of a typical Formula SAE chassis. As can be seen, there are two A-arms and a stationary steering rack (silver bar) with a tie rod. This will represent the situation of a driver with no steering input (zero degrees of steering angle). The tie rod as well as the A-arms are connected to the upright which hold the wheel hub, brake rotor, caliper, wheel, and tire.
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Initially the vehicle has no toe in or out and is traveling in a straight line. All seems well as the driver holds the wheel steady with no input over the smooth pavement road.
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Suddenly the driver hits a pothole compressing the front suspension. As can be seen, the front tire immediately toes in making the vehicle less predictable and unstable. The steering can also feel a bit light and loose under bump steer. The same issue can occur with hard braking which would compress the front suspension due to forward weight transfer. As seen below, due to the high difference in angle and length of the tie rod, the arc motion is completely off when compared to the upper A-arm. As the upper A-arm loses its lateral (left to right) displacement under jounce, the tie rod gains lateral distance pushing the upright out toeing in the front suspension.
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CALCULATIONS:Steering ratio- 12:1 Track- 60 inches Wheel base- 58 inches Maximum steering angleInner front wheel- 40 deg. +/- 2 deg. Outer front wheel- 28 deg. +/- 2 deg. Lock to lock- 2.26 turns. Ackermann %=60% Turning circle radius- using the formula listed above we get it close to 11.2 feet. Rack travel- 2.67 inches per turn Lateral rack movement- 6.675 inches.
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Contents
Steering geometry .........................................................................................................................................................1 Ackerman ..................................................................................................................................................................1 Steering Arm Angles ..................................................................................................................................................2 Parallel Steering Arms ...............................................................................................................................................2 Angled Steering Arms ................................................................................................................................................2 Low Lateral Acceleration ...........................................................................................................................................3 High Lateral Acceleration ..........................................................................................................................................3 Reasons for the choice: .............................................................................................................................................4 1. RACK ANS PINION STEERING .....................................................................................................................................8 2. PITMAN ARM TYPE ....................................................................................................................................................9 a)Worm and sector .................................................................................................................................................10 Worm and roller ......................................................................................................................................................11 Worm and nut or recirculating ball .........................................................................................................................11 Cam and lever .........................................................................................................................................................12 3. RECIRCULATING BALL TYPE STEERING MECHANISM ...............................................................................................13 THE STEERING MECHANISM MOST SUITABLE FOR OUR VEHICLE ...............................................................................14 STEERING RATIOS ........................................................................................................................................................14 VARIABLE STEERING RATIOS ........................................................................................................................................14 POWER STEERING ........................................................................................................................................................16 ELECTRIC POWER STEERING ........................................................................................................................................17 TYPES OF EPS ...............................................................................................................................................................18 1. COLUMN ASSIST TYPE .........................................................................................................................................18 2. PINION ASSIST TYPE.............................................................................................................................................19 3. RACK ASSIST TYPE ................................................................................................................................................19 4. DIRECT DRIVE TYPE .............................................................................................................................................19 VEHICLE DYNAMICS .....................................................................................................................................................20 UNDERSTEER ...........................................................................................................................................................20 OVERSTEER ..............................................................................................................................................................20 BUMP STEER ............................................................................................................................................................21 Example #1: Bump Steer Scenario ..........................................................................................................................21 Example #2: Scenario without Bump Steer .............................................................................................................23 CALCULATIONS:- ..........................................................................................................................................................24
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Steering System