Dynamic Monitoring of the Effect of Passenger Occupancy on the Vehicle Center of Gravity (CG) in a Lightweight Electric Vehicle
Sujan Neroula1, Chinmayee Hazarika2, Santanu Sharma3
1Sujan Neroula, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India.
2Chinmayee Hazarika, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, G.I.M.T, Guwahati , Assam, India
3Santanu Sharma*, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Tezpur University, Tezpur, India.

Manuscript received on November 11, 2019. | Revised Manuscript received on November 23, 2019. | Manuscript published on 30 November, 2019. | PP: 4310-4315 | Volume-8 Issue-4, November 2019. | Retrieval Number: D8126118419/2019©BEIESP | DOI: 10.35940/ijrte.D8126.118419

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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Abstract: In lightweight vehicles, the passenger weight has a substantial contribution to the vehicle gross weight. This paper presents a simulation, evaluation, and application of vehicle model developed to estimate the shift in the center of gravity (CG) of the vehicle on various terrains, driving conditions and different passenger occupancy combinations. The designed Neighbourhood Electric Vehicle (NEV) comprises various sensors including load sensors and speed sensors at each wheel. Vehicle dynamics is influenced by various factor like speed, goad grade, lateral acceleration, longitudinal acceleration, passenger occupancy, etc. Here a simple model has been presented where the movement of the vehicle CG is mapped based on the load experienced by each wheel in dynamic driving conditions. The wheel forces are used to identify the instantaneous CG by virtue of a system identifier on board the vehicle. The validation of the proposed model has been done on a lightweight NEV. In addition, several simulations have been carried out to illustrate the effect on vehicle dynamic stability. It was found that the passenger occupancy status can influence vehicle performance and handling to a large extent.
Keywords: Passenger Occupancy, Vehicle Dynamics, Wheel Load Sensor, Centre of Gravity, Traction Control, Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD).
Scope of the Article: Foundations Dynamics.