Calculation of Maximum Acceleration, Maximum

Tractive Effort and Reactions for Different Drives

(Automobile)
31.10.
Calculation of Maximum Acceleration, Maximum Tractive Effort
and Reactions for Different Drives
31.10.1.

Front Wheel Drive

The forces acting on the vehicle and giving rise to dynamic equilibrium are shown in Fig.
31.9.

Fig. 31.9. Forces acting on a vehicle in motion.

If b = wheel base
h = height of C.G. from the road surface / = distance of C.G. from rear axle
31.10.2.
Rear Wheel Drive
Here the tractive effort acts only on rear wheels. Hence eliminating Ff and applying Fr to
the rear wheels in Fig. 31.9, maximum tractive effort becomes,
31.10.3.

Four Wheel Drive

This may be with or without third differential.
(i) Without Third Differential. Here both Ff and Fr come into play. Assuming that
limiting friction occurs at all the four wheels simultaneously, the maximum tractive effort,

(ii) With Third Differential. The torque at the front the rear wheels becomes equal with
the application of third differential. Slip occurs at the wheels where the normal reaction
is smaller and thus limits the tractive effort. In case, the load distribution to the front and
rear wheels is equal, the slip has to occur first at the front wheels because the static
normal reaction at front wheels is reduced due to inertia effect.
After finding out the values of Rr and Rf from above equations, it can be ascertained
whether the assumptions made was correct or not. If it is not, the solution of the
problem should be based on the other assumption.
The above article deals with the cases of vehicles moving on level road. Similar analysis
holds for the vehicles moving on grades. This involves another variable, 9, the
inclination of the grade. Example 31.5 can be referred for this case.
Example 31.7. A motor car with wheel base 2.75 m with a centre of gravity 0.85 m
above the ground and 1.15 m behind the front axle has a coefficient of adhesion 0.6
between the tyre and ground. Calculate the maximum possible acceleration when the
vehicle, is (a) driven on four wheels
(6) driven on the front wheels only
(c) driven on the rear wheels only.

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tractive-effort-and-reactions-for-different-drives-automobile/
Distribution of Weight
31.8.1.
Four-wheeled Vehicle
Forces acting on a four-wheeled vehicle at rest are shown in Fig. 31.6. In this case only
three independent equations can be formed to take care of four unknown viz., four
reactions at the wheels. Thus the problem is simplified by considering it as a two-
wheeled vehicle i.e. the reactions on both rear wheels are equal and also on both front
wheels. Let Rf and Rr be vertical reactions at front and rear wheel respectively,

Fig. 31.6. Forces acting on four-wheeled vehicle at rest.

Example 31.5. A car weighing 21336.75 N has a static weight distribution on the axles
of 50:50. The wheel base is 3 m and the height of centre of gravity above ground above
is 0.55 m. If the coefficient of friction on the high way is 0.6, calculate the advantage of
having rear wheel drive rather than front wheel drive as far as gradiability is concerned,
if engine power is not a limitation.

Rear Wheel Drive.

Considering the car moving at constant speed up a gradient of angle 9, the forces giving
equilibrium are shown in Fig. 31.7.
Then, Rr+Rf= Wcos8
and, Fr = hRr = W sin 0
By division,
tan 9 = _ „ Rr + Rf
Fig. 31.7. Forces acting on a vehicle moving up a gradient.

which is more than the car having front wheel drive, so far as gradability is concerned.
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Car - Traction Force
Adhesion and tractive effort
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The tractive force between a car wheel and the surface can be expressed as

F = μt W

= μt m ag (1)

where

F = traction effort or force acting on the wheel from the surface (N, lbf)

μt = traction - or friction - coefficient between the wheel and the surface

W = weight or vertical force between wheel and surface (N, lbf))

m = mass on the wheel (kg, slugs)

ag = acceleration of gravity (9.81 m/s2, 32.17405 ft/s2)

Traction Coefficients for normal Car Tires

Traction Coefficient
Surface
- μt -

Wet Ice 0.1

Dry Ice/Snow 0.2

Loose Sand 0.3 - 0.4

Dry Clay 0.5 - 0.6

Wet rolled Gravel 0.3 - 0.5

 Traction Coefficient
Surface
- μt -

Dry rolled Gravel 0.6 - 0.7

Wet Asphalt 0.6

Wet Concrete 0.6

Dry Asphalt 0.9

Dry Concrete 0.9

Example - Traction Force on an Accelerating Car

The maximum traction force available from one of the two rear wheels on a
rear wheel driven car - with mass 2000 kgequally distributed on all four wheels
- on wet asphalt with adhesion coefficient 0.5 - can be calculated as

Fone_wheel = 0.5 ((2000 kg) (9.81 m/s2) / 4)

= 2453 N

The traction force from both rear wheels

Fboth_wheels = 2 (2452 N)

= 4905 N

Note! - that during acceleration the force from the engine creates a moment
that tries to rotate the vehicle around the driven wheels. For a rear drive car
this is beneficial by increased vertical force and increased traction on the
driven wheels. For a front wheel driven car the traction force will be reduced
during acceleration.

The maximum acceleration of the car under these conditions can be

calculated with Newton's Second Law as

acar = F / m

= (4904 N) / (2000 kg)

 = 2.45 m/s2

= (2.45 m/s2) / (9.81 m/s2)

= 0.25 g

where

acar = acceleration of car (m/s2)

The minimum time to accelerate from 0 km/h to 100 km/h can be calculated
as

dt = dv / acar

= ((100 km/h) - (0 km/h)) (1000 m/km) (1/3600 h/s) / (2.4 m/s2)

= 11.3 s

where

dt = time used (s)

dv = change in velocity (m/s)

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/tractive-effort-d_1783.html
Wheel Slip
So first of all, hello! I have a question - how much of a torque a car needs to produce
that a wheels would start slipping? Lets say i have a car which weights 3200 kg, and
has a wheel radius of 0.4394m. So i've been told that to calculate that, i need to do the
following procedures(thats very basic): 1.) Calculate normal force: F = 3200 * 9.81 =
31392 N 2) Multiply normal force by a friction coefficient(lets say its 1) and wheel radius:
T = 31392 * 1 * 0.4394 = 13793,64 Nm 3) Divide by number of wheels: T/4 = 3448,41
Nm. And we get the result - to slip a wheel you need to send to the wheel 3448,41 Nm
of the torque. Is that true? How accurate is this method if its true? What about if a car
has a rear wheel drive? A wheel will still slip if it reaches over calculated torque? Or you
need 2x amount of that(for both wheels)? I'm just confused here.. I need that because
i'm calculating a set of gears, and i've calculated that a car at it's peak can send a total
amount of 9000 Nm(after all gearing), and thats just crazy amount of torque - gears will
be just too big if i would try to calculate them to withstand that. So i know that a wheel
will start slipping much earlier and a wheel will never reach 9000 Nm, and thats what i
need to calculate - how much of a theoretical torque a wheel can get in a worst case
scenario with an LSD differential(i've been told that theoretically in a worst case
scenario, one rear wheel of a rear wheeled car with an LSD differential could get a full
torque from an engine).

Reference https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/how-much-of-torque-do-you-need-
to-start-wheels-slipping.681324/