I was an engineer at Chrysler in the fifties. (Yes, I'm that old.) At that time, it was quite easy to talk with other engineers about dynamic compressibility effects in gaseous flow. In other words, we realized that the sonic wave nonsense in Phillips' book simply could never explain the dyno...
Not really a "Helpful Tip," but there's no "Interesting Trivia" choice.
The simplicity of the old Ford torque tube suspension (used in the first half of the last century) is to be admired. It actually reduces to a triangle with 3 links: The axle assembly, the Panhard, and the rest of the car...
Commonly, a 3link is considered to have 2 symmetrically positioned links, in plan view, with a third more centrally located link. Page 40 of my site provides a spreadsheet which allows much more design flexibility. (The site is essentially devoted to the presentation of foundational suspension...
Was thinking again of my youth, as old men do, and recalled how all the Chevies and Fords of the time had torque tube suspension. Even the Corvette had it for the first 3 years. But, eventually, 'most everyone went to open drive shaft and leafs. The next evolutionary step was to coils and here...
The following is for a RWD with beam axle:
As I was preparing a new 3link spreadsheet for my site (Page 40), I realized that it could also be used with triangulated 4link and torque arm suspensions. While neither of these are normally considered 3links, if you think of the triangulated pair in...
I've been promoting, at my site, that which I call a "traction dyno." This is nothing more than an adaptation of the constrained testing used in the automotive industry...before the use of full chassis fixturing...to quantify the effects of cornering loads on the chassis. I've simply rotated the...
When calculating percent anti-squat for a RWD beam axle car, the 100% line is commonly assumed to have a slope equal to the CG height divided by the wheelbase. Some time ago, I realized that the line must pass slightly below the rear tire patch IF the weight of the rear axle assembly is taken...
As we analyze a dynamics problem, we occasionally realize that our choice of coordinate system was poor and we are forced to start anew. I doubt if we'll be changing the SAE coordinate system very soon, but I do wish more thought had been devoted to its conception.
It's reasonable to have the...
If anyone's interested, Page 24 of my blog:
http://home.earthlink.net/~whshope
has a spreadsheet for direct measurement of the roll rate of the anti-sway bar(s) and the rates, front and rear, due to suspension springs.
For those who visit this site and have limited access to suspension specific software, here's a free skidpad test spreadsheet:
http://home.earthlink.net/~whshope/id21.html
Jumping over to this forum to ask a quick question.
About 50 years ago, I saw an accessory for a stick welder which used 2 tungsten electrodes. It provided intense heat and/or light. I was considering buying same (to expose silkscreen emulsions) when another application came to mind.
Would I...
Section 8.2 of Race Car Vehicle Dynamics describes the constrained testing which was done before the development of the sophisticated fixturing now common to the major manufacturers. The car was tethered to a much heavier vehicle and observations and measurements were made as the two...
I'm retired and am requesting a favor from one of you guys who has access to chassis simulation software. I'd like to know the ratio of right front spring rate to left front spring rate, for a beam axle RWD car, that will provide cancellation of the driveshaft torque. Obviously, many parameters...
I suppose this is a trivia question, but I was telling someone about the following and it bugged me that I couldn't remember the manufacturer responsible.
Some British engine manufacturer (Bristol?) used two pushrods to actuate the exhaust. The top pushrod was quite short and was positioned...
Some 48 years ago, I was taught that, with an IRS, right-to-left load variations are unaffected during acceleration. But, I just realized that, if anti-squat is present, some of the reaction torque must be diverted to appear as vertical loading on the unsprung mass, resulting in a load disparity...
Dragracers often complain about what they call "tire shake." Personally, I've attributed this to a resonance between a couple of the tire vibration modes, specifically: torsional and translation in "Z."
Would others concur and has anyone attempted to help a dragracer with this problem?
Though few tears will be shed, the 2005 Mustang will probably be the last RWD beam axle car with significant production numbers. But, since many of the owners will be taking them to the dragstrip, I find the possibility of offsetting the upper link fascinating. Retired and with nothing better to...
What with the emphasis on dragstrip applications, does anyone know why Ford didn't offset the upper link to the right on the new Mustang rear suspension (ala the Jaguar C-Type)?
I'm just an ignorant ME who only got as far as organic, so I need some help from one of you Chem E's. Back in the forties, I heard that the addition of mothballs to gasoline would improve performance. Never tried it, but now I'm hearing that, yes, with the old naphthalene mothballs, it was true...
(In the following, I'll be referencing only a RWD live axle car, but the conclusion also applies to a RWD IRS car. I realize the no squat/no rise line, for the IRS car, is displaced upward...negative Z direction...from that for the live axle car by a distance equal to the loaded rear tire radius...
