Ideal Vehicle Longitudinal Force

Vectoring
Ideal Distribution of Braking / Drive Forces
Albert Loh - 27 November, 2015

Introduction
It is normal practice to proportion braking forces front-to-rear in accordance to the
predicted friction available on the front/rear axles.
When turning into a corner, there is a lateral weight transfer which changes the
friction available left-to-rignt. Therefore, the brake forces acting on the individual wheels
should also be proportioned laterally as well as longitudinally.
Theoretically, the drive force should be proportioned among the 4 wheels in the
same way as the brake force, since they are the same thing, but only in opposite direction.
(Assume individual wheel thrust vectoring is possible on all 4 wheels for this study.)

Optimum distribution of longitudinal drive/braking forces

What is the optimum distribution of longitudinal drive/braking
force?
For a plane uniform friction surface, the ideal longitudinal force
distribution is in proportion to the friction on each wheel, which
is proportional to the vertical load on each wheel.
Reasons:1) At the friction limit, the 4 individual wheel forces act in the same direction;
therefore, the total force is maximised.
2) If the friction coefficient is the same for each wheel, the combined force acts
through the CG. (see appendix B)
3) Since the forces from all 4 wheels act in the same direction and their resultant
also acts directly through the CG, it is the maximum total force that can be obtained
from the 4 wheels.

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Conclusion
1) Lateral vectoring is required in addition to longitudinal proportioning for the
braking/drive forces in order to obtain the best possible combined force from the 4
wheels.
2) For a vehicle on a uniform friction surface, the ideal proportioning is in direct
proportion to the vertical load on each wheel.
3) Differentials operate on relative motion / force between wheels rather than the
absolute force and are thus not ideal for force vectoring. It would be better to use a
system of clutches or electrical drive which would allow for thrust control on
individual wheels.

Notes
1) The quasi-static wheel load distribution is used instead of the instantaneous
wheel loads to prevent sudden disruptions to the vehicle stability. (i.e. the vehicle and
individual wheel transients are ignored).
2) This strategy works for uniform friction on all 4 corners. The friction limit can be
either a circle or an ellipse.
3) This strategy does not work for side-to-side split cases, nor for where the front
and rear tires have significantly different friction coefficients.
4) Cross weighting has no effect on the strategy.
5) Longitudinal forces are defined to act along the car axis and lateral forces are
perpendicular to the car axis. Therefore:A. Steering angle changes the direction of the tire forces and thus the tire forces
must be resolved to act relative to the car axis.
B. Slip angles only change the direction of motion of the vehicle but not the tire
forces relative to the car axis. Therefore slip angles do not change the optimum
force distribution strategy.

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

APPENDIX

A.

QUASI-STATIC LOADING

B.

WEIGHT TRANSFER EFFECT

C.

NUMERICAL CHECK

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Appendix A - Quasi-Static Loading

The quasi-static wheel load distribution is used instead of the instantaneous wheel
loads to prevent sudden disruptions to the vehicle stability. (i.e. the vehicle and individual
wheel transients are ignored).
This is probably valid for most cases of normal road and even race track conditions.
Most drivers, especially on the race track are conditioned to operate all controls smoothly
and avoid jerking (i.e. transients).
Particularly in the case of steering, it takes a significant period of time to actually
turn the steering wheel in normal road or race track driving. For braking and throttle
application, it is possible to have a sudden input, but this would only be under emergency
conditions. Race drivers are trained to hit the brake pedal quickly but also smoothly in
order not to elicit transient overshoot. Therefore, step inputs leading to transients are
probably only significant during extreme avoidance manoeuvres.

1.2
1

INPUT SIGNAL

0.8
0.6

TOTAL RESPONSE

0.4
0.2
0
-0.2 0

TOTAL ERROR TERM

0.5

1.5

-0.4

2.5

3.5

CYCLES

FIXED RAMP WIDTH - VARYING DAMPING RATIO

1.2

=0

0.1

0.8

The study of ramp or single pulse sinusoidal

0.3

0.6
0.5

0.4
0.2

0.9

0
-0.2

0.5

1.5

2.5

Input

3.5

FIXED DAMPING RATIO - VARYING RAMP WIDTH

0.000001
0.1

0.2
1.5

inputs would be much more useful for

normal vehicle dynamics.

0.3
0.5

0.75
1

0.5

1.5
0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

-0.5

PEAK VALUE vs RAMP WIDTH - VARIOUS DAMPING RATIOS

2.5

2
3

=0

2
0.1
1.5

0.3

0.5
0.7

0.5

0.9

0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Appendix B - Weight Transfer Effect

Weight Shift
The total Lateral force Fxyv causes a lateral shift in
the centroid of the resultant force on the ground

plane (i.e. lateral weight transfer) by a distance of

y = Fyv/W * H

Fyv

Similarly, the total Longitudinal force Fxv causes a

Fyv

shift in the centroid of the resultant force on the

ground plane (longitudinal weight transfer) of

x = Fxv/W * H

Yaw Moment
The blue forces are the resultant forces from the
tires acting on the ground plane. The red forces are
the opposing inertial forces from the CG. Note the
Fxv

following:1. The total Longitudinal force Fxv

y
x

Fyv

Fyv

moment Fxv*y about the CG.

2. The total Lateral force Fyv

Fxv

causes a yaw

causes an

opposite yaw moment -Fyv*x about the CG.

3. Note Fxv*y = Fxy*{Fyv/W * H} = -Fyv*x,

TOP VIEW

These 2 yaw moments exactly balance out!, i.e. the

resultant of the wheel forces act through the CG.

Put in another way, the lateral forces cause a weight transfer to the outside of the
corner. If the longitudinal forces are vectored such that they act at the point of the
weight transfer, the yaw moments caused by the longitudinal and lateral forces balance
out.

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Appendix C - Numerical Check

1) Spreadsheet Calculation
To verify the effectiveness of the proposed the longitudinal force distribution in
proportion to the individual wheel load, a spreadsheet which calculates the individual
wheel vertical loads, friction forces and moments of the individual wheel forces about the
CG was constructed.

The calculations confirm that

1) total yaw moment about CG is zero
2) total combined friction force utilisation factor is 1.000, showing that the
maximum friction capacity is utilised.

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Appendix C - Numerical Check

2) Vehicle Simulation
Using the CAR4.BAS simulator to calculate the total forces
available on each wheel, the g-g diagram shows a perfect circle
equal to the friction circle. This is the holy grail I have previously
spent countless hours trying to approach without success by
playing around with all sorts of vehicle parameters. YES!

IDEAL VEHICLE LONGITUDINAL FORCE PROPORTIONING

Available Friction

Calculated G-G Diagram