Handling performance analysis and optimization of a vehicle with considering the influence of steering shaft parameters

The structure of a steering system plays an important role in the vehicle’s handling performance. Considering the convenience of changing the structural parameters of the steering system, the phase angle of universal joints and the initial angle of steering shaft are selected as the structural parameters to be studied in this paper. The kinematics of the steering system and the dynamics of the whole vehicle are analyzed theoretically. The simulation study shows that the phase angle mainly influences the fluctuation of the steering ratio, the initial angle mainly influences the symmetry of the steering ratio. The transient and steady-state objective evaluation indexes vary with the phase angle and the initial angle at a period of 180°. Through optimization research, it is demonstrated that the handling performance of a vehicle can be improved in the direction of the desired level by matching the initial angle and phase angle.