Yixin Yang

Yixin Yang is a PhD student at Loughborough University supervised by James Knowles and Georgios Mavros. His research focuses on bifurcation analysis of vehicle dynamics. Specifically, through equations of motion and extended tire models, he attempts to investigate how the nonlinear characteristics in tire behaviours affect the dynamic responses of undesirable vehicle oscillations, thereby providing theoretical guidance on the relationship between tire properties and vehicle handling stability. His work is also devoted to the coupling effects of front wheel shimmy and vehicle handling motion, in which the transient tire behaviour captured by single-contact-point model plays a key and bridging role.

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Presentation

Effect of tire properties on wheel hop and shimmy

The presentation draws a link between tire attributes and vehicle dynamics/stability. It considers front wheel shimmy and rear wheel hop as two examples, to explore how inflation pressure, pneumatic trail and other tire parameters influence the occurrence of undesirable wheel oscillations, leading to inferior dynamic performance. To address the problem, a transient Magic Formula tire model with pressure sensitivity is combined with a shimmy model and a rear wheel hop model. Bifurcation analysis is performed using these models and the results provide a theoretical reference for the relationship between tire parameters and oscillatory/unstable wheel shimmy and hop responses.