By Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Martin Meywerk - Professor for Automotive Engineering at the Helmut-Schmidt-University in Hamburg
From Bugatti Veyron to Volkswagen Beetle, from racing to passenger car:
Learn how they behave on a country road and on the autobahn!
About this course
The mobility has influenced many areas of a human's life since the
invention of the wheel. While, in the early days of motorized vehicles,
technical developments concentrated on simple mechanical or electrical
issues , in the past decades, the electronics and with it, the
microprocessor technology have become a central part of innovation in
vehicles. Future developments of trendsetting style will be the
conversion of the drive train from purely internal combustion engine to
hybrid or alternative powertrain systems, the car-to-car communication
and the autonomous vehicles. Challenges that make these technical
developments partly necessary, come from a desirable reduction in CO2
emissions and an increase in the active safety. To understand the recent
developments, especially in the field of alternative propulsion
strategies and also in the area of autonomous or semi-autonomous
vehicles, a knowledge of the basic driving physics is essential, as
these innovations can be understood solely as the underlying laws of
physics are known.
For this reason three parts of the vehicle dynamics, the longitudinal, the lateral and the vertical dynamics are important.
Vertical oscillations
In this third part vertical dynamic aspects of vehicles will be
illuminated, that means, we will describe a car running on a bumpy or
rough street.
We will start with an survey of suspensions and springs and dampers.
After this we will explain the description of rough streets and we will
give an introduction to Fourier integrals. Then we will have a closer
look at vertical models, and in the last fundamental part we will
describe the conflict between driving Safety and comfort. The course
will be finished by two applications from automotive mechatronics.
Course Structure
- Suspensions
- Springs, Dampers
- Stochastic Description of Road Surfaces
- Fourier Integrals
- Vertical Models
- Conflict Between Driving Safety and Comfort
- Application: Active Body Control
- Application: Active Stabilizing Rod
Learning Outcomes
- You will know different kinds of suspensions, springs and dampers
- You will know the description of rough and bumpy streets
- You understand the Fourier integral
- You understand the conflict between driving safety and comfort
- You are able to calculate simple properties of a car
Workload
Per week: 135 - 260 min.
- one video divided in 5 to 7 portions: 45 min.
- 5 – 7 question-clusters for knowledge: 20 -30 min.
- 2 – 3 question-clusters for comprehension: 25 – 50 min.
- Guided calculation for application
- P2P-problems to train analysis and synthesis skills: 45 min.
- wrap-up: 0 – 90 min. (depends on your previous knowledge and your comprehension) Preparation of the exam: 30 h
Course Format
The course uses a mixture of Screencasts (with handwritten
derivations, drawings, formulas), Powerpoint slides and videos from real
cars, simulated cars and testrigs.
Assessments
To assess the different levels of learning this course will use different form of assessments:
- Knowledge: Multiple choice,
- Comprehension: correlation between statements and parts of diagrams, formulas or driving maneuver (visualized by short simulation videos);
- Application: short guided calculations (open office),
- Analysis: P2P-problems: longer calculations or drawings
Prior Knowledge
You should have been successful in university courses in basic
mathematics and in basic engineering mechanics, especially you need:
- Algebra
- Trigonometric Functions
- Differential calculus
- Linear Algebra: Vectors, Coordinate systems etc.
- Force, Torque, Equilibrium
- Mass, Center of Gravity, Moment of Inertia
- Method of Sections, Friction, Newton's Law
- (Fourier’s integral)
