Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies

Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43

IIJET

STUDY OF ROLL CENTER

SAURABH SINGH*, SAGAR SAHU**
*, **
Mechanical engineering, NIT B

ABSTRACT roll center can be an actual pivot point or a virtual point in

space and they don’t essentially lie along the center line of
As our solar car aims to bring new green technology to cope the vehicle. SAE’s definition indicates, if the roll centers of a
up with the greatest challenge of modern era i.e. energy car are at the same height as the sprung mass’ Center of
demand and ESVC is a racing championship of such Gravity (CG), it will not reveal any body roll during a corner
innovative technology that bring thrills on speed but in an a line connecting the rear suspension roll Centre with that of
ecofriendly way. As much it is important to bring speed to the front is called the roll axis.
car so as equally important to design and fabricate vehicle
design so that it can withstand high speeds to let it run and
flow smoothly. That is the work of suspension system to keep
the optimal tire contact with ground and keep passengers
comfortable and one of the most important aspect of which is
Roll Center. The vehicle roll center is a key parameter that
influences the vehicle roll dynamics. The roll center is
considered an important factor in determining overall vehicle
ride and handling quality it is important to know how to find Fig. 1: Roll Center
roll center for different type of suspension. So it becomes
important for vehicle discuss roll center with respect to
different suspension parameter and relation between roll
center and center of gravity with changing vertical position of
roll center for front and rear suspension system.

I. INTRODUCTION

Roll center of a vehicle is the imaginary but accurately

defined point on the center-line of the car around which the
vehicle rolls, at which the cornering forces in the suspension
system are transferred to the vehicle body. The location of
the geometric roll center is solely dictated by the suspension
geometry. The official definition of roll center are-
•SAE: a point in the transverse plane through any pair of
wheels at which a transverse force may be applied to the
sprung mass without causing it to suspension roll.
•Kinematics: the roll is the point about which the body can
roll without any lateral movement at either of the wheel
contact areas.
The roll Centre can be high off the ground, low, or even
below the ground. Depending on the type of suspension, the
Fig. 2: Roll Axis Location
Reason to find the Roll Center of a car is about predicting
how the car reacts while cornering. Knowing where the roll
center is in the front of the car gives an idea of what the
wheels will be doing as the nose of the car dives under
braking or leans in a corner. Without roll center information,
one cannot estimate how much the camber angle of the front
wheels will change during suspension travel or how much
body roll will be present while cornering. Roll center is used
to determine the stiffness of spring, ride frequency and
various suspension parameters and geometries that will help
to keep optimal tire contact in both the conditions of ride( a
car’s ability to smooth out a bumpy road) and handling ( a
car’s ability to safely accelerate , brake and corner.)

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 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies
Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43
IIJET

 So, the distance between roll center and CoG should be

minimum but simultaneously, it is important to keep the
minimum distance of roll center from ground in order to
minimize jacking forces.
 To keep our solar car stable in order to negotiate any turn
at high speed and keeping above factors in mind, we
have performed following iteration on LOTUS SHARK
SUSPENSION SOFTWARE and obtained satisfactory
value of roll center distance under permissible limit as
per our calculations.

Fig. 3- Physics Behind Roll Center

If N1 and N2 are the normal reaction forces of tires

during cornering of vehicle and 2a is the front track
width of car, the distance between center of gravity
(CoG) and roll center (RC) is L, then to avoid rolling :-

N1*a – N2a > F*L ------------------ (1) Where F =

mv2/r (centrifugal force) N1 = static normal +
lateral load
Fig. 5- Results obtained
Reaction transfer
N2= static normal – lateral load Many of such iterations were performed in order to determine
Reaction transfer the appropriate height of roll center from ground.
Where, lateral load = m*f*(L+x)/ 2a
Transfer Roll-Centre Determination
Here m= mass supported on one wheel f= lateral
acceleration of car • Aronhold–Kennedy theorem of three centers: when three
L+x= height of CoG from ground 2a= track bodies move relative to one another they have three
width instantaneous centers all of which lie on the same straight
line.

The value of L as obtained from equation 1 will give the • Iwb can be varied by angling the upper and lower
maximum permissible value of distance of roll center wishbones to different positions, thereby altering the load
from CoG in any dynamic condition. transfer between inner and outer wheels in a cornering
 In any condition, if the distance increases from the maneuver.
maximum permissible value, then tire will start losing • This gives the suspension designer some control over the
contact with the ground and vehicle would become handling capabilities of a vehicle.
unstable.

Fig. 4- Iterations performed

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 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies
Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43
IIJET

Instantaneous Center:-Each wheel of an independent In case of double wishbone suspension with Parallel
suspension has an instantaneous center and it is the point in horizontal links:-
space that the wheel rotates about as the suspension
compresses or rebounds. Point Iwb is sometimes referred to And with inclined parallel links :>
as 'virtual pivot', or as 'instantaneous center'. The
instantaneous center dictates scrub radius, camber change and
the way forces are transmitted. This pole can give us
information about how the suspension moves. The distance
from point Iwb to the centerline of the tire is sometimes
referred to as 'swing axle length’, it's as if the hub/wheel is
attached to an imaginary swing axle which hinges around
point I. Having that long swing axle would be equivalent to
having the double wishbone-type suspension, but the actual
construction would be very impractical. Nevertheless it Swing axle roll center is located above the “virtual”
serves as a good simplification. The swing axle length, joint of the axle.
together with the angle, determine the amount of camber
change the wheel will experience during the compression of
the suspension. A long swing axle length will cause very
little camber change as the suspension is compressed, and a
very short one will cause a lot. If the upper link and the A-
arm are perfectly parallel to each other the intersection point
Iwb is infinitely far removed from the car. This isn't a
problem though: just draw line as above .these two lines
should always intersect on the side of the center of the car, if
The roll center for a leaf spring suspension is found by
they intersect on the outside, camber change will go from
negative to positive back to negative, which is not a good drawing a line between the center of the forward
thing for the consistency of the traction. Having a suspension attachment point (A) and the center of the upper
that gains negative camber as the body of the car rolls is shackle attachment point (B). Where that line crosses
beneficial. It helps keep the tire perpendicular to the ground the vertical center line of the axle is the roll center. The
during cornering which maximizes tire contact with the track. roll center height is the vertical distance from the
ground to roll center
Roll-Centre determination for different type of
suspension:- An important point to note that the roll center will move
when the suspension is compressed or lifted, that's why it's
•In the case of the MacPherson strut suspension the actually an instantaneous roll center. How much this roll
upper line defining Iwb is perpendicular to the strut axis center moves as the suspension is compressed is determined
by the suspension arm length and the angle between the top
and bottom suspension arms (or turnbuckles). As the
suspension is compressed, the roll center will become higher
and the moment arm (distance between roll center and the
car's center of gravity (CoG in the picture)) will decrease.
This will mean that as the suspension is compressed (when
taking a corner, for example), the car will have less tendency
to keep rolling (which is good, you do not want to roll over).

When using higher grip tires, the suspension arms should be

set in such a way that the roll center is raised significantly as
the suspension is compressed. Running parallel, equal-length
suspension arms will result in a fixed roll center. This means
that as the car leans over, the moment arm will be forcing the

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 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies
Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43
IIJET

car to roll more and more. As a general rule of thumb, the roll moment. Note that it is always the vertical distance
higher the center of gravity of your car, the higher the roll between the CG and the RC since the forces always work
center should be to avoid a roll-over. horizontally.

Roll Center Height: - The roll center height is found by Olley’s Derivation: -
projecting a line from the center of the tire-ground contact M. Olley’s gives his derivation on roll center. He assumes
patch through the front view instant center as shown in that a SLA suspension mechanism may be approximated in
Figure. This is repeated for each side of the car. Where these front view by a Planar four-bar linkage as shown in Fig. 1.
two lines intersect is the roll center of the sprung mass of the He also uses a parabolic approximation to the circular arc
car, relative to the ground. It is not necessarily at the x=y2/2y shown in Fig.2 (a) to mathematically relate small
centerline of the car, especially with asymmetric suspension motions of the outer ball joints to jounce-rebound. When the
arm is not initially vertical but has an initial lift “a,” the
geometry or once the car assumes a roll angle in a turn. It is
expression for x becomes [see Fig.6] (y2/2R) + (ya/R).
obvious that the roll center location is controlled by the
instant center heights above or below ground, the distance
away from the tire that the instant center is placed, and
whether the instant center is inboard or outboard of the tire
contact patch the roll center establishes the force coupling
point between the unsprung and sprung masses.

Fig. 6:- Approximating a Circular arc

Referring to Fig. 7, Olley proceeds as follows:

When a car corners, the centrifugal force at the center of

gravity is reacted by the tires. The lateral force at the CG can
be translated to the roll center if the appropriate force and
moment (about the roll center) are shown. The higher the roll The equation of the line through the outer joints of the two
center the smaller the rolling moment about the roll center control arms gives the following expression for the
(which must be resisted by the springs); the lower the roll displacement of the tire patch as a function of the control arm
center the larger the rolling moment. You will also notice that displacements.
with higher roll centers the lateral force acting at the roll
center is higher off the ground. This lateral force x the
distance to the ground can be called the no rolling Substituting from Eqs. (1) And (2) into Eq. (3) we get
overturning moment. The forces generated by the tires can be
combined to one force, working in the car's roll center. Two
equal, but opposite forces, not working in the same point
generate a torque equal to the size of the two forces
multiplied by the distance between them. So the bigger that
distance, the more efficiently a given pair of forces can
generate a torque onto the chassis. That distance is called the

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 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies
Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43
IIJET

Differentiating Eq. (5) with respect to y we get This is the curvature of the path traversed by the wheel
contact point. The radius of curvature, R3, of this path is
given by the reciprocal of (d2x3 /dy2).Therefore

This is the rate of tread change. At zero jounce, i.e., when

y=0, Eq. (6) becomes
Olley’s main result is that when R3=∞, the tire contact patch
moves in a straight line. The arc of radius R3 in Fig. 3
becomes a straight line. The rate of tread change becomes a
constant for this condition. It follows from Eq. 8 that the
height of the roll center above ground becomes a constant.
The line from the contact patch to the roll center remains
parallel to itself when the wheel moves up and down. The
roll center moves up or down by the same amount as the
wheel. The geometric condition on the linkage for achieving
this is given by Eq. (11),which may be written as follows:

Fig. 8- SLA suspension geometric parameters

Equation (12) states that when the lengths of the control
arms are inversely proportional to the heights of their outer
ends above ground, the tire contact patch moves in a straight
line, i.e., the height of the roll center remains fixed with
respect to ground as the sprung mass moves up and down.

II. Application and Conclusion:-

The height of the roll center is related to the rate of tread
change by the following expression Ideally in high performance applications load transfer tends
to be minimized as a tire's performance is directly affected
height of roll center = rate of tread change x (track width/2) by the amount of load that it has to transmit. In a steady
(8) state turn the final load transfer, summed across all the
axles, is only related to the position of the center of mass
Using Eqs. (7) and (8)we may write above the ground, the track width and the lateral
acceleration. SUVs must shift their center of mass lower or
decrease their lateral acceleration to avoid tipping. To keep
them from tipping many auto manufacturers use tires with
lower grip to reduce the vehicles cornering capacity, or the
roll stiffness balance front to rear can be altered to
Olley’s choiceof coordinates. The letter t in Eq.(9) represents encourage understeer or oversteer as necessary to limit the
the track-width.Differentiating Eq.(6) with respect to y we maximum lateral acceleration of the vehicle.
get
III. Author biography
SAURABH SINGH, 2nd year Mechanical engineering,
NIT BHOPAL, email-saurabhsinghmanit@gmail.com

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 Imperial International Journal of Eco-friendly Technologies
Vol.- 1, Issue-1(2016), pp.38-43
IIJET

SAGAR SAHU, 2nd year Mechanical engineering,

NIT BHOPAL, email- sagarsahumanit@gmail.com

References
[1]Gillespie, “Fundamentals of Vehicle Dynamics", SAE
Publication. Tune To Win - Carroll Smith

[2 ]Milliken, W. F., and Milliken, D. L., 1995, "Race Car

Vehicle Dynamics", SAE.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_( vehicle)

[4]web.iitd.ac.in/...html/../15
Suspension_systems_and_components
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll center

[6] http://www.onedirt.com/tech-/suspension/finding-your-center-
finding-yourfront-and-rear-roll-center

[7] Suspension Synthesis for N:1 Roll Center Motion

[8]http://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-suspension.htm
[9]Vehicle Dynamics- theory and application by Reza N. Jazar.

[10]Tyre and vehicle dynamics by Hans B. Pacejka.

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