International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 9, Issue 7, July 2018, pp. 409–421, Article ID: IJMET_09_07_045

Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=7
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

DEVELOPMENT OF A LAP-TIME SIMULATOR

FOR A FSAE RACE CAR USING MULTI-BODY
DYNAMIC SIMULATION APPROACH
Chitranjan Singh
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

Sakthivel Palanivelu
Automotive Research Center, School of Mechanical Engineering,
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India

ABSTRACT
There are many challenges in race car development process right from making of
prototype to realize an actual car. The development cost is proportional to the number
of prototypes used during the process. This brings in the necessity of a lap-time
simulator that aid in data driven decision making during multiple lap configurations
without an actual physical test of the vehicle. Development of lap-time simulator is a
complex task. It requires a multi-body dynamic simulation approach. The simulator
has to account for vehicle performance, handling and ride comfort. The vehicle
performance is not only influenced by ideal power characteristics provided by the
power unit and transmission system, but depends on the role of tire to maximize the
tractive/braking effort realized at the contact patch during complex tire road
interaction. It is mainly influenced by location of center of gravity, dynamic
longitudinal load transfer, and the aerodynamic and rolling resistances. The vehicle
response for handling inputs such as steering and environmental inputs decides the
vehicle directional control and stability of the vehicle, which is influenced by dynamic
load transfer, and cornering slip stiffness of the tires. The roll, pitch and bounce
motion decides the ride comfort level of the vehicle. The main aim of this paper is to
present a lap-time simulator developed for vehicle performance and handling
characteristics for linear operational range. The modeling of the simulator has been
divided into 3 segments .The first segment corresponds to tire modeling. The second
segment has two sub-segments concerned with developing the vehicle modeling which
includes the vehicle modeling for longitudinal dynamics as well as lateral dynamics
[1]. The final segment concerned with creating an algorithm for tracking the vehicle
on a predefined map and executing the prescribed motions. Hence, it is understood
that there are many advantages of a lap-time simulator, importantly, it reduces
number of prototypes and hence reduces the vehicle development cost.
Key words: FSAE race car, Lab-time simulator, longitudinal dynamics, lateral load
transfer, map tracking, ride comfort.

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

Cite this Article: Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu, Development of a Lap-
Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic Simulation
Approach, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology 9(7),
2018, pp. 409–421.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=9&IType=7

1. INTRODUCTION
Every reputed Formula Student team around the world has developed a similar lap-time
simulator for their car due to obvious advantages. In order to simulate all the parameters a
Lap-time simulator is essential. Vehicle dynamics simulation tools is with the objective that it
should be sufficiently accurate, and describe the performance of a vehicle well enough that
they can be used to make decisions when designing or developing a vehicle and, thereby
decreasing the testing time as well as cost of manufacturing. A linear model would cause huge
deviation from actual data and would be proven inconsequential.
The same can be done by a professional simulation tool which is available in the market
but it suffers from the disadvantage of taking a huge array of inputs to replicate reality to a
high degree, but the insight provided that comes along with simplicity is lost, which is
essential in early development stages. Finally, the advantage of taking batch runs is explored
to be a significant aspect of custom built simulators. The method presented in the current
work represents a step between these two extremes.

2. METHODOLOGY
The development of a lab time simulator is done in stages [2] and consisted of the following:
 Tire modelling
 Vehicle Modelling
 Map tracking

2.1. Tire Modelling

The popular magic formula version 5.2 is considered as the tire model for the vehicle. The
formula gives the variation of longitudinal, lateral forces and aligning torque developed at the
contact of the tire patch as a function of slip ratio and slip angle respectively. However the
contact forces are function of vertical load felt at the contact patch. Software called Optimum
T used to fit this curves using the data given by the TTC (Tire test consortium).

Figure 1 Lateral force v/s slip angle for 1000, 1500 and 2000N

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

These data are basically generated from a number of test runs on a specific tire to
represent a semi-empirical tire model. The coefficient correction also carried out based on the
curve fitting equations given in the reference. [3] The following Fig.1 represents the variation
of lateral force as a function of slip angle for different load conditions.
The linear variation range of lateral force is limited by very small range of slip angle for
the normal load of 1000N, and it further reduces as the normal load increases. For a chosen,
slip angle, the required lateral force increases as function of normal load. The tire load
sensitivity appears to be a closer match of characteristics of tire model with that of the actual
one. Which states that the lateral forces at given slip angle as a function of normal load but the
variation is non-linear. So it necessitates the situation that the slip angle has to increase to
draw the required lateral force. The fact that is to be observed is the tire model includes the
nonlinearity of the cornering stiffness into its behaviour and causes the whole scenario to
become closer to reality.

Figure 2 Longitudinal force v/s slip ratio for 1000, 1500 and 2000N

Similarly, the graph in Fig. 2 shows the variation of longitudinal forces as a function of
slip ratio for varying normal loads.

2.2. Vehicle Modelling

The vehicle model is developed for the following conditions.
2.2.1. Model for Longitudinal Dynamics

Figure 3 Vehicle model

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

Fig. 3 shows the model for straight line dynamics with the location of centre of gravity,
and the dimension of wheel base. And the equation 1 and 2 are derived considering the
dynamic equilibrium condition to calculate the dynamics load transfer in the front and rear
axle during motion.

( ( ) ( )) ( ( ) ( )) (1)

( ( ) ( )) ( ( ) ( )) (2)

Where,
Wf, load on front wheels
Wr ,load on rear wheels
W, total weight of the vehicle
Wfs, static load on front wheels
Wrs, static load on rear wheels
b, distance of front axle from the CG
c, distance of rear axle from the CG
ax , acceleration of the vehicle
h, height of CG from the ground
l, wheelbase
The pseudo force caused due to the acceleration acts on the centre of gravity of the vehicle
that causes a moment about the lateral axis, due to its distance from the ground. Now the
following scenario resembles a moment applied on a simply supported beam and therefore
this takes care of the dynamic of transfer of the vehicle. But the acceleration is caused by the
force generated at the wheels for that, the least force generated has to be identified. The force
generated due to the tires’ friction (coefficient of road adhesion) or the force supplied due the
output torque by the powertrain to the wheels through transmission system. Finally, the force
which propels the car forward is limited by the least of these two forces.

Figure 4 Tractive effort-speed characteristics [4]

Hence, the transmission also needs to be modelled separately so as to identify the point
where the gear shift needs to be done. The driveline modelling especially the gear shifting
algorithm depends on the transmission ratios and the vehicle speeds. The basic function of

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

transmission system is to bring the ideal power characteristics. The intersection points given
in Fig.4 are the best point for a shift in the optimum region as the least amount of tractive
force is wasted from the engine.
The transmission also needs to be modelled separately so as to identify the point where
the gear shift needs to be done. The driveline modelling especially the gear shifting algorithm
depends on the way the transmission ratios are present as well as the velocity the vehicle
achieves. [4]
For the above mentioned objective the inputs required for the Simulink model were the
following:
 The engine torque curve
 The gear ratios
 The vehicle parameters
 The CG position
 The wheel base
 The aerodynamic effect

The simulator can run a set of iteration for any one parameter being a variable and other
parameters being constant this gives it an advantage of finding the best value for that
parameter. For example the following Fig.5 is an iteration of the final drive ratio so as to find
the ratio which results in the minimum value of time.

Figure 5 Acceleration time as a function of final drive ratio

Figure 6 Tractive force as a function of road speed

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

And the traction effect on the optimized ratio is obtained and is explained in Fig.6, this
clearly indicates variation of longitudinal force as a function of velocity of the vehicle. In
other words, it shows at what point of time during motion, what amount of traction to be
developed to propel the vehicle forward. The sharp points in torque force curve marked by red
depict the shifting points.
The following Fig.7 is an overview of the Simulink module which computes the traction
for straight line dynamics of the vehicle.

Figure 7 Simulink model for traction

The next part of this segment was to find out about the braking capacity of the vehicle and
for that the current model computes the deceleration value for a vehicle on a given set of tires.
It takes in the static parameters and then using a closed loop keeps on iterating for the solution
of the dynamic equation which computes the maximum braking force on a particular load, this
provides a decelerating force which is then again used to find the load transfer. The new load
transfer provides new loads on each wheel which provides a new set of maximum braking
force required. This loop goes on for the front as well as the rear end until the solution
converges to at least 5% difference in 2 consecutive iterations. Fig.8 shows the Simulink
module which calculates the maximum braking force.

Figure 8 Simulink Model for maximum Braking

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

2.2.2. Vehicle model for lateral dynamics

The velocity that a race car can achieve during a turn is limited by the grip available for
generating slip angles and yet remains a function of the lateral load transfer. The phenomenon
is easily understood by the Milliken Moment diagram Fig.9 [1]. The diagram is a plot
between normalized lateral acceleration and normalized yaw moments across a number of
vehicle side slip angles and steer angles.

Figure 9 Milliken Moment Diagram (Cn-Ay) [1]

As can be seen from Fig.9, each and every slip angle has to be addressed in a form of steer
angle and a body side slip angle. That would then help us in finding the exact point on the
graph at any moment of the vehicle’s maneuver. In other words, for a given steering input, the
side slip generates accordingly. So, as the vehicle enters a curve it travels along the constant
beta line (β=0) which is the vehicle side slip angle as illustrated in Fig.10. Vehicle side slip
angle is defined by the angle included between the vehicle heading direction and its actual
direction of travel which is dictated by the path it follows. When the vehicle just enters a turn
there is no side slip because right now only the front wheels have been steered. As the front
wheels are steered a moment as well as acceleration is generated. Then increasing the steer
gives rise to the moment start giving an effect, the side slip is generated which varies across a
constant steer line to reach a steady-state value where there is no yaw moment. Thus, the grip
available and the corresponding force generated on each end depend on the way the vehicle is
modelled. The whole modelling process revolves around the modified bicycle model.

Figure 10 Bicycle model [1]

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

Figure 10 shows the bicycle model that represents the collapsed wheels in the front and
the rear with basic assumption neglecting the effect of suspension compliance and hence the
roll. But this model is good enough to address the directional control and stability. With this
longitudinal weight transfer model, a lateral load transfer model shown in Fig.11 is included
additionally in the current work.

Figure 11 Single mass weight transfer model [5]

The calculation of lateral load transfer involves the whole vehicle roll stiffness, which is
dictated by the stiffness of springs and anti-roll bar. The anti-roll bar is split into two torsional
springs working in parallel. And therefore, the lateral load transfer calculated is directly
proportional to the roll angle subtended by the sprung mass about the roll axis. This
assumption also has to take into account that the two torsional springs are connected by a
chassis which has a finite torsional stiffness of its own. The following equation 3 and 4 taken
from [5] illustrates front and rear lateral load transfer.

( )
( ) (( ) ) ( ) (3)
( ( )) ( ( ))

( ( ) )

( )
( ) ( ) (( ) ) (4)
( ( )) ( ( ))

(( ) )
where,
m, mass of vehicle
l, wheelbase
a, distance of front axle from the CG
b, distance of rear axle from the CG
kf, front roll stiffness
kr, rear roll stiffness
kc, chassis roll stiffness
df, distance between front mass height and front roll center height
dr, distance between rear mass height and rear roll center height
zf, front roll center height
zr, rear roll center height
ay, lateral acceleration
ΔFzf, front lateral load transfer

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

ΔFzr, rear lateral load transfer

The lateral acceleration model was built using the same equations 3 and 4for weight
transfer and extensively analyzed by [5] and in order to relate the force generated directly to
the body side slip angle as well as steer angle equation 5 and 6 were used.

(5)

(6)
Where,
αf, front slip angle
αr, rear slip angle
R, radius of turn
δ, steer angle
β, body side slip angle
We also assume that the left and right wheels are making the same slip angles. The
Milliken moment diagram is plotted to represents the variation of yaw moment as a function
of lateral acceleration for various runs varying body slip and steering angle. On 10m radius
curvature for two different biased normal load on rear axle simulations were performed and
the observation are given below the figures 12 and 13 respectively.

Figure 12 Cn-Ay graph for 53% rear load

Figure 13 Cn-Ay graph for 30% rear load

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

The maximum lateral acceleration obtained was 1.62 g. The normalized yaw moment at
this maximum lateral acceleration was +0.01 and maximum lateral acceleration at 0 yaw
moment was 1.60 g. The above was the performance for a 10m radius on 53% biased normal
load on rear. The time taken is 4.9876 seconds.
The maximum acceleration was 1.61 g, normalized yaw moment at maximum lateral
acceleration was -0.03 and maximum lateral acceleration at 0 yaw moment was 1.55 g. The
above was the performance for a 10m radius on 30% biased normal load on rear. The vehicle
has now become under steered with negative yaw moment and a time of 5.0896 seconds. So
as is evident a change of 20% static load distribution caused the car to change its
characteristics.

Figure 14 Maximum lateral acceleration as a function of front stiffness ratio

Then the batch runs were done to estimate maximum lateral and yaw moment responses.
This is a significant advantage of the proposed simulator. Fig.14 represents a batch run for
different values of stiffness of the front end for its maximum lateral acceleration which can be
attained. Fig.15 gives the variation of normalized yaw moment variation at the maximum
lateral acceleration as a function of front end stiffness ratio.

Figure 15 Variation of Yaw moment at maximum lateral acceleration as a function of front end
stiffness ratio

2.3. Map Tracking

Map tracking refers to a vehicle’s motion geometry. It requires kinematics of the vehicle. The
final aspect of the simulation development is to create an algorithm where a vehicle is
assumed to be a point mass as it is important to compute the lap trajectory. It can move on a
predefined map and predict ahead the maximum velocity which can be reached on turns. It
computes the least time to brake and the earliest time to accelerate on any segment of the
map. The Logic given in [6] is used, where it runs initially with the maximum possible speed

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

and does a comparative analysis on the curved segment between the speed of the vehicle and
the maximum allowable speed and chooses the lesser of the two to be the actual speed. Then
considering this velocity as final velocity it computes the shortest braking distance required to
reach this velocity.
The algorithm to find the radius of curvature from a set of three points is illustrated in
Fig.16 and is calculated using the equation 7. As already mentioned the simulator would
compute the maximum entry velocity of every segment and as soon as the exit velocity of the
previous segment exceeds the entry velocity of the next segment. The simulation would
backtrack by then assuming the velocity to be reached after braking being already known.

Figure 16 Map radius of curvature calculation [6]

2 2 2
(b + c – a )/2bc
P = (360 – 2A)/ 2 = 180 – A
sin P = (½) a / R
R = a / (2 sin P) = a / (2 sin (180 – A)) (7)
This establishes a procedure for an arbitrary lap on which batch runs were conducted. The
following section presents the results obtained from these batch runs by the proposed
simulator.

3. RESULTS
To understand the influence of wheel base, the incremental variation in wheelbase is given for
the first batch run of straight motion of the car. The variation of acceleration time as a
function of wheelbase is plotted. The graph in Fig.17 refers to these acceleration runs of 75m
long path. As expected acceleration is faster with shorter wheelbase as more load transfer
helps in gaining more tractive force but the important point is that the trend is not linear that
means a variation in wheelbase on the shorter end gives more return in acceleration
performance of a rear wheel drive car than a change of wheelbase on the longer wheelbase
end.

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 Chitranjan Singh and Sakthivel Palanivelu

Figure 17 Variation of acceleration time as a function of wheelbase

The second batch of iterations is carried out for the normal load distribution from 10% to
90% front biased for the different maps and the variations are shown in Fig.18.

Figure 18 Variation of acceleration time a function of normal load ratio on the rear

In acceleration scenario having all the weight on the rear is the best condition which is
evident. Yet here also the same effect of diminishing returns can be seen.

Figure 19 Variation of Lap time as a function of rear weight ratio

Third batch run is to determine the lap time and its variation as a function of rear weight
fraction. For this study lap run on a 15m radius circle was considered. It is observed that the a
weight bias of 50-50 is the best for turns and is observed in Fig.19.Fourth batch run was
conducted to predict the influence of chassis stiffness on the 15m radius circle. It is evident
from Fig.20 that the chassis effect is not significant hence the effect is negated. The result

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 Development of a Lap-Time Simulator for a FSAE Race Car using Multi-Body Dynamic
Simulation Approach

clearly shows that the torsional stiffness directly affects the lateral load transfer and hence
increasing the torsional stiffness decreases the lap timings.

Figure 20 Lap time as a function of chassis torsional stiffness

4. CONCLUSIONS
The proposed lap-time simulator includes tire modelling, vehicle modelling and map tracking.
Tire modelling was done using Magic Formula version 5.2, combined bi-cycle and roll
models were used in vehicle modelling and an algorithm developed for map tracking
considering the vehicle to be the point mass. There were four batch runs were conducted to
predict the lap time variation due to the wheelbase, the roll stiffness distribution, the normal
load distribution, the final drive ratio and the chassis torsional stiffness. Though there are
established techniques of higher degree of freedom models to represent the whole vehicle and
availability of commercial software to simulate the racing laps, the current attempt given the
good experience to understand the hot spots of intended objective through reading and
understanding the classical text books.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author would like to convey their sincere thanks to Automotive Research Center, VIT and
Pravega Racing, official FSAE team of VIT University, Vellore, and Tire test consortium and
Optimum Vehicle dynamics solution.

REFERENCES
[1] Milliken D.L, Milliken W.F., Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, Society of Automotive
Engineering Inc, Warrendale, PA, 1995.
[2] Chris Patton, Development of Vehicle Dynamics tools for Motorsports, Corvallis: Oregon
State University, Doctoral Dissertation, 2013.
[3] Pacejka H.B., Tire and Vehicle Dynamics, Elsevier, 2006.
[4] Gillespie T.D., Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics, SAE International Inc, Warrendale
PA, 1992.
[5] Aldo Sorniotti, Andrew Crocombe, Enrico Sampo, ‘Chassis Torsional Stiffness: Analysis
of the influence on Vehicle Dynamics’. SAE International, 2010-01-0094.
[6] James Hakewill, Lap Time Simulation, 2000.

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