The Automotive Chassis: Volume 2: System Design (Mechanical Engineering Series)

This work serves as a reference concerning the automotive chassis, i.e. everything that is inside a vehicle except the engine and the body. It is the result of a decade of work mostly done by the FIAT group, who supplied material, together with other automotive companies, and sponsored the work. The first volume deals with the design of automotive components and the second volume treats the various aspects of the design of a vehicle as a system.

The Automotive Chassis is the result of two decades of experience: On the one hand from the experience of teaching courses such as Vehicle Mechanics, Vehicle System Design, Chassis Design to engineering students; on the other hand from the design practice of vehicle and chassis components in a large automotive company.

This work is addressed primarily to students of automotive engineering and secondarily to all technicians and designers working in this field. It is also addressed to all enthusiasts who are looking for a technical guide.

The text is subdivided in two volumes. The first one deals with the automotive chassis componenst, such as

· a structure, usually a ladder framework, able to carry all the remaining components of the vehicle;

· the suspensions for the mechanical linkage of wheels with the framework;

· the wheels and their tires;

· the steering system for changing wheel angles according to vehicle path;

· the brake system for reducing speed or stopping the vehicle;

· the transmission for applying engine torque to the driving wheels.

The second volume deals with the automotive chassis as a system, studying how it influences vehicle performance and dealing in detail with mathematical models useful for the design and analysis of the vehicle.