MODELING, FABRICATION AND ANAYSIS OF FOUR WHEEL STEERING SYSTEM TO QUADRICYCLE NAMED SPINNER

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1 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET) Volume 9, Issue 13, December 2018, pp , Article ID: IJMET_09_13_069 Available online at ISSN Print: and ISSN Online: IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed MODELING, FABRICATION AND ANAYSIS OF FOUR WHEEL STEERING SYSTEM TO QUADRICYCLE NAMED SPINNER Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi and Raja Sekher Jagathani Associate Professor, Department of Automobile Engineering, Godavari Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajahmundry, AP, India. Aruna Kunda Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ideal Institute of Technology, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, India. ABSTRACT In this project work an effort was made to suggest a suitable compact car model to overcome traffic and parking problems in urban mobility. In this project an existing hatchback car chassis is modified accordingly. The corners are trimmed and reduced to single box section i.e., two seats with two doors and a luggage boot. The reduced weight decreased the manufacturing cost and improved the mileage. All the wheels were coupled to steer about a common instantaneous center. This design allowed the vehicle to steer with least effort at a small turning radius about 2.9 m and hence highly maneuverable. This mechanism enhances the tyre and wheel bearings life. Key words: Quadricycle, Spinner car, Mini-car, Small car, Micro car, four wheel steering, all wheel steering. Cite this Article: Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda, Modeling, Fabrication and Anaysis of Four Wheel Steering System to Quadricycle Named Spinner, Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 9(13), 2018, pp INTRODUCTION Population in cities is increasing day by day and thereby increasing the number of personal cars. So traffic jams are becoming most common in all most all cities and even in small towns. Utilization of small cars known as quadricycles is one of the solutions to avoid traffic jams and parking problems considerably. A Quadricycle is a four wheeled two seated automobile just like a car but propelled with a low capacity engine, can travel at a limited speed and weight not more than 350 kilos. Quadricycles are famous in European countries such as France, England and Germany. The purpose of Quadricycle is to utilize in cities more prone to have traffic jams. The editor@iaeme.com

2 Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda Quadricycles are compact in design which allows easy driving even in rush roads and occupies less parking space. There is a need of compact cars to control traffic jams and parking problems. Moreover it fulfills the dream of middle class people of having a car. With this project work a model was suggested to overcome the most common traffic problems in cities and towns to some extent. It is so expensive to design, model and fabricate a car. In this project a discarded hatchback car chassis was taken and remodeled it. The vehicle is topless single box section arranged with two seats and a luggage boot. It s a concept car and named it as SPINNER which is designed to highly maneuverable. Lot of research is going on steering systems to improve the maneuverability of automobiles [1-5, 7]. Tahami et al. [1, 2] discussed enhancing of stability of electric vehicle with all wheel steering during cornering as well as straight line motion on slippery terrains using Fuzzy logic techniques. They proved assistance of all wheel steering to drivers during emergency driving using the same logic. Galmarini et al. [6] discussed in detailed the need of quadricycle to decrease pollution in urban areas. Furukawa et al. [7] studied four-wheel steering system to cars with respect to vehicle dynamics. Santis et al. [8] characterized the various components of powertrain in a hybrid quadricycle. Castelli et al. [9] designed and tested quadricycle powered by electric motor to limit pollution. Wasielewski et al. [10] analyzed risk of driver with car mass, driver age and seat belt. They concluded that the small cars have less risk while accident took place. Whitehead [11] conducted compared maneuvering of front wheel steering vehicles with four-wheel-steering cars and showed that the later vehicles have rapid lane changes with less effort. Cignini et al. [12] fabricated microcar Spazia, found increase in acceleration by 20% and reduce in fuel consumption by 25%. Cotana et al. [13] studied noise contributions of four wheel hybrid quadricycle for postal delivery instead of bikes. Pavlovic et al. [14] formulated numerical simulations for quadricycle crash tests. Wang et al. [15] developed algorithm for fourwheel-steering vehicle trajectory planning. 2. MODELING AND FABRICATION Automobile consists of several systems to propel, steer, brake or slow down. All these assemblies are mounted on frame to form a chassis. The chassis comprises of skeleton like structure called frame. The basic frame used in this developed model was taken from an old Maruti 800 hatchback model which is an integral body structure. 2.1 Body Modeling The chassis, front wings, rear quarters and roof provides strength to the vehicle body. The roof was removed since the body had been cut and shortened to make it lighter. A soft roof can be arranged as optional to keep light weight. Other parts such as window glasses, door panels, subframes and floor-pan can also help to strengthen the vehicle body. The front and rear bumpers give protection during slow speed collisions. The Maruti 800 car chassis was modified accordingly. The corners were trimmed and reduced to single box section i.e., two seats with two doors and a small luggage boot. This design helps to pass the vehicle through rush roads easily. The fabrication work is shown in the fig editor@iaeme.com

3 Modeling, Fabrication and Anaysis of Four Wheel Steering System to Quadricycle Named Spinner Figure. 1 Fabrication of quadricycle Spinner 2.2 Prime Mover The Spinner vehicle was fitted with 800 CC, 3 Cylinder, 4 Stroke, Water cooled, Carburetor SI engine for better pick up. The present model weights 300 kg only and it can be pulled by a 200 CC bike engine easily which can decrease the manufacturing cost and improves mileage. 2.3 Transmission The transmission system affixed in this vehicle was a single plate dry clutch. The clutch transmits torque by virtue of friction. If the frictional torque exceeds the torque to be transmitted, then the power is transmitted from the driving shaft to the driven shaft without slipping. Synchromesh gear box of manual operation was selected which includes four forward speed synchromesh in all gears and one reverse on sliding mesh. Most modern manual-transmission vehicles are fitted with a synchronized gear box. Reverse gear is usually not synchromesh, as there is only one reverse gear in the normal automotive transmission and changing gears into reverse while moving is not required. The engine power was transmitted to the front wheels through drive shafts. The differential motion was achieved with differential employing planetary gears, which is connected to the road wheels through drive shafts. 2.4 Modeling of Steering System The widely used steering mechanism is Ackerman steering mechanism. Though it s not kinematically accurate it uses spherical pairs, which offers less friction and the driver needs less effort. It was chosen that the same Ackerman steering mechanism for Spinner car but provided the steering mechanism for both front and rear wheels as shown in fig. 2 which facilitated easy steering and much accurate turning. This unique feature allowed the car to pass through rush roads and narrow streets much easier. The back wheels were replaced with steered wheels in reverse direction. Both the front and back steering mechanisms were coupled to steer about a common instantaneous center. This feature allows the vehicle can steer the vehicle with least effort without external power assistance and can steer through small turning radius. This mechanism enhances the tyre and wheel bearings life as the wheels having pure rolling motion about a common Instantaneous Centre. More over this model is safer than existing models [10]. As per the knowledge of authors this design was first of its kind to quadricycle in India editor@iaeme.com

4 Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda Front Wheels Bearing Bearing Ball Joints Rear Wheels ALL DIMENSIONS ARE IN mm Figure.2 Connections of front and rear wheel stub axles. Rack and Pinion gear box was selected for the steering operation. The steering wheel and steering shaft were connected to a pinion gear. The pinion gear is in mesh with a straight bar that has gear teeth cut into one side. The toothed bar is called a rack. When the driver turns the steering wheel, the pinion gear turns, causing the rack to move. This movement, in turn, was connected to both front and rear linkage that moves the front wheels. The rack-and-pinion gear is mounted in a rack housing assembly. The steering linkage consists of two inner tie rods and two tie rod ends. The inner tie rod ends were attached to the steering rack ends. The outer tie rod ends were attached to the suspension arms on the steering knuckles. Rubber boots were used to cover and protect the inner tie rod assemblies from road splash. The road test of completely fabricated quadricycle is shown in fig. 3. Figure. 3 Road Test of completed quadricycle Spinner editor@iaeme.com

5 Modeling, Fabrication and Anaysis of Four Wheel Steering System to Quadricycle Named Spinner 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Different views of the completed quadricycle Spinner is presented in fig. 4. Figure. 4 Body Specifications of quadricycle Spinner The different specifications of quadricycle Spinner are given below. VEHICLE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS: Length of the vehicle : 2600 mm Height of the vehicle : 1430 mm Width of the vehicle : 1440mm Wheel base : 1510mm Track width : 1200mm Front overhang : 600mm Rear overhang : 490mm Ground Clearance : 300mm Fuel Tank Capacity : 5Liters Seating Capacity : 2 Engine Specifications No of Cylinders : 3 Valve Mechanism : SOHC Cylinder Configuration : Inline Valves per Cylinder : 2 Fuel System : Carburetor Torque : rpm Displacement : 796cc Power : rpm STEERING: FOUR-WHEEL-STEERING (ALL WHEEL STEERING) Steering Type : Manual Minimum Turning Radius : 2.9m TRANSMISSION: Clutch : Single Plate Dry Transmission Type : Manual Number of Gears : 4 Forward Synchromesh and editor@iaeme.com

6 Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda 1 Reverse Sliding mesh Drive : Front wheel with drive shafts Wheels &Tyres : Tyres 145 / 70 R-12 Wheel Size : 12inch Wheel Type : Disc made with Steel Rear Suspension : Leaf spring Front Suspension : Mac pherson strut and coil spring Rear Brakes : Disc Front Brakes : Disc 3.1. Vehicle Performance The vehicle was tested for a distance of 1000km between Kakinada and Rajahmundry cities in India and found a mileage of 28 km per litre. The mileages obtained were presented in the table 1. Table 1 Mileage at different conditions. S. No. Type of the Road Mileage observed in km/litre 1 Highway City ride Overall Steering System Analysis The steering system was designed to get pure rolling motion of all the wheels at every steering position i.e., while moving on a straight path, taking right turn or left turn. In front wheel steering vehicles the Instantaneous Centre lies on a straight line extended along the axis of back wheels. The Instantaneous Centre at various positions of steering is given in the figures 4-6. Figure. 4 Instantaneous centre when the vehicle steered in a straight path editor@iaeme.com

7 Modeling, Fabrication and Anaysis of Four Wheel Steering System to Quadricycle Named Spinner Figure. 5 Instantaneous centre when the vehicle is taking full right turn Figure. 6 Instantaneous centre when the vehicle is taking full left turn editor@iaeme.com

8 Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda 3.3. Turning Radius Turning radius is the minimum radius of the turning of the vehicle of outer most point on the vehicle. It is found that the turning radius of the Spinner car was 2.9m which is much lesser than the small cars presently available in the market in India. The turning radius of the Spinner is given in the fig. 7. Figure 8 shows the media clippings of the developed Spinner car. Figure.7 Turning Radius of the quadricycle Spinner Figure.8 Quadricycle Spinner in Print Media editor@iaeme.com

9 Modeling, Fabrication and Anaysis of Four Wheel Steering System to Quadricycle Named Spinner 4. CONCLUSIONS The developed quadricycle Spinner is equipped with two seats and a luggage boot. The corners are trimmed and front and rear overhangs are reduced. This design helps to pass the vehicle through rush roads and narrow roads very easily. So the vehicle can decrease the traffic problems and also parking problems considerably. The vehicle weighs 300 kg and is equipped with 3 cylinder, 4 Stroke, Water cooled, carburetor petrol engine for better pick up and got a mileage of 25.6 km per litre. The back wheels are coupled to steering system which allows them to steer in the direction reverse to front wheels. This all wheel steering mechanism is the unique feature of this Spinner vehicle which facilitates all the wheels can steer about a common Instantaneous Centre. This feature allows the driver can steer the car with least effort, decreases the turning radius about 2.9 m and enhances the tyre and bearings life. Moreover it is safer than ordinary steering. 5. FUTURE SCOPE Even a high capacity bike engine like pulser 200 CC or even 150CC engine can pull this car easily to get better mileage at the expense of pick up. Another better option is a two cylinder 1000 CC Diesel engine which decreases running cost considerably. This quadricycle is a low budget car made at a cost of Rs.65, 000/-. The cost of the car will further decrease in mass production. With this project it is suggested that the two wheeler manufacturers can produce this type of cars which has great potential in the middle to lower income group countries such as India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Pakisthan etc. Definitely it can grasp some part of 2-Wheeler market. The boot space can be replaced by two more seats to meet the need of consumers. Moreover it fulfills the dream of middle to lower class people to afford a car. REFERENCES [1] Tahami, F., Farhangi, S and Kazemi, R, A fuzzy logic direct yaw-moment control system for all-wheel-drive electric vehicles, Vehicle System Dynamics, 41(3), 2004, [2] Dinesh, S., Murugan, V.S., Jagannathan, R., Aarvindakshaan, S., Kumar, N.N., and Robin, J.R., Steering and constant steer test analysis of FSAE vehicle using CARSIM, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), 8(10), 2017, [3] Malu, D., Katare, N., Runwal, S., and Ladhe, S., Design methodology for steering system of an ATV, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), 7(5), 2016, [4] Subrahmanyam, B., Bridjesh, P., and Madhu, S., Manufacturing of steering components for a race car, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), 8(6), 2017, [5] Tahami, F., Kazemi, R., and Farhanghi, S., A novel driver assist stability system for all-wheeldrive electric vehicles, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 52(3), 2003, [6] Galmarini, G., Gobbi, M., and Mastinu, A quadricycle for urban mobility, Proc. of the ASME 2012 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, Chicago, IL, USA, 2012, 1-8. [7] Furukawa, Y., Yuhara, N., Sano, S., Takeda, H., and Matsushita, Y., A review of four-wheel steering studies from the viewpoint of vehicle dynamics and control, Vehicle System Dynamics, 18 (1), 1989, [8] Santis, M.D., Agnelli, S., Silvestri, L., Ilio, G.D., and Giannini, O., Characterization of the powertrain components for a hybrid quadricycle, International Conference of Numerical Analysis and Applied Mathematics, 2015, to editor@iaeme.com

10 Subrahmanyam Vasamsetti, Rajasekhar Sandhi, Raja Sekher Jagathani and Aruna Kunda [9] Castelli, D.F., Galmarini, G., Gobbi, M., and Mauri, M., Design and realization of a quadricycle for urban mobility, Proc. of 9th International Conference and Exhibition on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable Energies (EVER), 2014, 1-8. [10] Wasielewski, P. and Evans, L., Do drivers of small cars take less risk in everyday driving, Risk Analysis, 5(1), 1985, [11] Whitehead, J.C., Four wheel steering: Maneuverability and high speed stabilization, SAE International, 2018, 1-5. [12] Cignini, F., Ortenzi, F., Rossi, E., and Virginio, S., Spazia-HPP: Hybrid plug-in for small vehicle, Proc. 69th Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering Association, ATI2014, Energy Procedia, 2015, 81, [13] Cotana, F., Nicolin, A., and Goretti, M., Improvements in noise mitigation of a postal delivery service: a comparison among hybrid, electric and conventional vehicles, Inter-noise 2009, Ottawa, Canada, 1-9. [14] Pavlovic, A., Fragassa, C., and Miranda, S.D., Numerical simulation of crash test for the heavy quadricycle, Proc. of Intenational Congress Motor Vehicles & Motors, 2014, [15] Wang, D. and Qi, Feng. Trajectory planning for a four-wheel-steering vehicle, Proc. of International Conference on Robotics &Automation, 2001, editor@iaeme.com