Vehicle Dynamics

Exercise 16
May 18 2010

Matthijs Bakker
1285645
1. Equations of motion
Derive using the method of Lagrange the linear equations of motion for a single axle (two wheeled)
trailer which is pulled by a car driving with constant speed in a straight line.

The Lagrange equation is the following:

d ∂T ∂T ∂U
− + −Q = 0 (1.1)
dt ∂qɺi ∂qi ∂qi

Where T is the kinetic energy, U is the potential energy and Q are the generalized forces and moments.
q1 =y and q2=phi which are the degrees of freedom.

This equation will be applied on the trailer around the center of mass.
The kinetic energy becomes:

T = 12 myɺ 2 + 21 m ( xcgϕɺ ) + 21 Iϕɺ 2

2
(1.2)
The potential energy is:

U = Cϕϕ 2 + C y y 2 (1.3)
And the generalized forces are

Qy = F3
(1.4)
Qϕ = F3 (x3 − x cg ) − Kϕϕɺ + F3 xcg

The force F3 is the friction force of the tire in the counter direction of V3. This is:

V3 − ( yɺ + x3ϕɺ )
F3 = C Fα α 3 = C Fα = C Fα (1.5)
V V

Now the separate parts of the Lagrangian will be calculated

 ∂T d ∂T ∂T ∂U
= myɺ , = myɺɺ , =0, = 2C y y
∂yɺ dt ∂yɺ ∂y ∂y
∂T d ∂T ∂T ∂U
= Iϕɺ + mxcg2
ϕɺ , = Iϕɺɺ + mxcg
2
ϕɺɺ , =0, = 2Cϕϕ
∂ϕɺ dt ∂ϕɺ ∂ϕ ∂ϕ

The equation for y is:

d ∂T ∂T ∂U
− + − Q = myɺɺ + 2C y y + CFα
( yɺ + x3ϕɺ ) = 0 (1.6)
dt ∂yɺ ∂y ∂y V

The equation for phi is:

d ∂T ∂T ∂U
− + − Q = Iϕɺɺ + mxcg2 ϕɺɺ + 2Cϕϕ + CFα
( yɺ + x3ϕɺ ) x + K ϕɺ = 0 (1.7)
ϕ
dt ∂ϕɺ ∂ϕ ∂ϕ
3
V

These equations can be put in matrix form and these are the equations of motion:

1 x3 
m 0   yɺɺ  C Fα   yɺ  C y 0   y  0 
 ⋅  + V  ⋅   + 2 ⋅ =
Cϕ  ϕ  0 
(1.8)
 0 mxcg + I  ϕɺɺ V  x3 x 3 + Kϕ  ϕɺ
2 2
0
 C Fα    

2. Stability
In the second part we want to draw conclusions on stability. We introduce the following:

ˆ λt
y = ye
(1.9)
ˆ λt
x = xe

This is filled in matrix equation(1.8) and divided by e λt :

1 x3 
m 0   λ 2 yˆ  CFα   λ yˆ  C y 0   yˆ 
 0 mx 2 + I  ⋅  2 ˆ  + V  ⋅  +2 =0
 λ ϕ  V  x3 x 3 + Kϕ
2
 λϕˆ 0 Cϕ  ϕˆ 
 C Fα    
cg

 2 C Fα C Fα  (1.10)
mλ + V λ + 2C y V
x3 λ   yˆ 
   =0


C Fα
x3 λ ( mxcg + I ) λ +  V x3 + Kϕ  λ + 2Cϕ  ϕˆ 
2 2  C Fα 2 
V 

This Matrix multiplication has to be zero for each y and phi, and therefore the determinant of the matrix
needs to be zero. From this we can extract the characteristic equation.
 C Fα C Fα
mλ 2 + λ + 2C y x3 λ
V V
=0 (1.11)
 C Fα 2 
C Fα
V
x3 λ ( mxcg + I ) λ +  V x3 + Kϕ  λ + 2Cϕ
2 2

The characteristic equation becomes:

C Fα m  2 V I 
2
m(mxcg + I)λ 4 +  x3 + Kϕ + xcg
2
+ λ3 +
V  C Fα m
(1.12)
 C Fα  C C 
 2Cϕ m + Kϕ + 2C y (mxcg
2
+ I)  λ 2 +  Fα 2Cϕ + 2C y  Fα x32 + Kϕ   λ + 4C y Cϕ = 0
 V   V  V 

This equation has the following shape:

a4 λ 4 + a3λ 3 + a2λ 2 + a1λ + a0 = 0 (1.13)

From the values of ‘a’ we can make conclusions on stability. The conditions for stability are:

a0 > 0, a1 > 0, a2 > 0, a3 > 0, a4 > 0

a1 a0 0
(1.14)
H3 = a3 a2 a1 = a1a2a3 − a12a4 − a32a0 > 0
0 a4 a3

The values of ‘a’ are:

a0 = 4C y Cϕ
C Fα C 
a1 = 2Cϕ + 2C y  Fα x32 + Kϕ 
V  V 
C
a2 = 2Cϕ m + Kϕ Fα + 2C y (mxcg 2
+ I) (1.15)
V
C m V I 
a3 = Fα  x32 + Kϕ + xcg
2
+ 
V  C Fα m
a4 = m(mxcg
2
+ I)

Now we want to draw some conclusions for the case when Cϕ = Kϕ = 0 and xcg = x3 .
For this situation the values of ‘a’ becomes:

a0 = 0
C Fα 2
a1 = 2C y x3
V
a2 = 2C y (mx32 + I) (1.16)
C Fα m  2 I 
a3 =  2 x3 + 
V  m
a4 = m(mx32 + I)

For the first stability condition these values need to be positive. This is not the case because a0=0.
Therefore the system is marginally stable. The other values are positive except for a1 and a3 which are
negative if the velocity is negative. In that case the system is unstable.
Now we check the second stability criterion:

2
  C m I   
H3 =  2C y Fα x32  ( 2C y (mx32 + I))  Fα  2 x32 +   −  2C y Fα x32  m(mx32 + I) = 0 (1.17)
C C
 V   V  m   V 

This means that:

2
 C Fα 2  C m I   
x3  ( 2C y (mx32 + I) )  Fα  2 x32 +   >  2C y Fα x32  m(mx32 + I)
C
 2C y (1.18)
 V   V  m   V 

This can be simplified:

I
2 x32 + > x32 (1.19)
m

This is always the case and therefore the stability conclusions on the first stability criterion are valid for
the whole system.