A Basic Study on Hybrid Systems for Small Race Car to Improve Dynamic Performance Using Lap Time Simulation

A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle with two or more power sources. We propose a hybrid system in which the engine torque converted by the transmission is combined with an electric motor torque. The proposed system reduces transmission because engine torque only acts during transmission. Furthermore, the proposed hybrid system’s simple structure uses lightweight chains and sprockets that can be laid out in various ways. The realization of the proposed hybrid system requires independent control algorithms for the two power systems, engine and electric motor, that take into consideration the state of the vehicle and the driver’s input; this system can be assumed to be a servo model system with multiple inputs and outputs and analyzed to obtain the optimal operation algorithm. To apply these controls to race cars, which are required to be fast, it is necessary to obtain the reference input, which is the optimal velocity and yaw angle while traveling the course of the servo system, and simulations of the competition track must be carried out. Therefore, the dynamic performance of the hybrid system was investigated by calculating the lap times on a given circuit using a quasi-steady-state method with low computational load and high prediction accuracy. In this study, the effects of changing the electric motor and final gear ratios on the driving performance of a rear-wheel-drive parallel hybrid system for optimization were investigated. The simulation results show that not only can the optimum settings be obtained by changing the final and electric motor reduction ratios on the evaluation circuit, but also that the optimum values vary across different speed ranges on different circuits

Research on Yaw Moment Control System for Race Cars Using Drive and Brake Torques

The yaw acceleration required for circuit driving is determined by the time variation of the yaw rate due to two factors: corner radius and velocity at the center of gravity. Torque vectoring systems have the advantage where the yaw moment can be changed only by the longitudinal force without changing the lateral force of the tires, which greatly affects lateral acceleration. This is expected to improve the both the spinning performance and the orbital performance, which are usually in a trade-off relationship. In this study, we proposed a yaw moment control technology that actively utilized a power unit with a brake system, which was easy to implement in a system, and compared the performance of vehicles equipped with and without the proposed system using the Milliken Research Associates moment method for quasi-steady-state analysis. The performances of lateral acceleration and yaw moment were verified using the same method, and a variable corner radius simulation for circuit driving was used to compare time and performance. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed system

Basic Study on Mechanical Vibration Suppression System Using 2-Degree-of-Freedom Vibration Analysis

Mechanical vibrations adversely affect mechanical components, and in the worst case, lead to serious accidents by breaking themselves. To suppress vibrations, various studies have been conducted on vibration isolation, suppression, and resistance. In addition, technologies to actively suppress vibration have been rapidly developed in recent years, and it has been reported that vibrations can be suppressed with higher performance. However, these studies have been conducted mostly for low-order systems, and few studies have employed control models that consider the complex vibration characteristics of multi-degree-of-freedom (DOF) systems. This study is a basic study that establishes a control model for complex control systems, and the vibration characteristics of a 2-DOF system are calculated using the vibration analysis of a multi-DOF system. Furthermore, the vibration suppression performance of the 2-DOF system is investigated by performing vibration experiments