Cornering and Stability

Cornering and stability go hand in hand; the more stable a car is the better it will corner, generally speaking of course. We have already learned how aerodynamics contributes to cornering and stability so we won’t discuss that in this page. Throughout this page we will discuss how centripetal force and center of mass contribute to taking a car around a corner at high speeds. Keep in mind that when engineering these cars to be able to handle these intense conditions, there are many more aspects to take into consideration besides simply the centripetal force and center of mass of our body, i.e. the supercar.


http://www.niot.net/niot_570/persche%20carrera%20gt%20niot.net%202%20(12).jpg



We all know from general physics class that F = ma, where F is force, m is mass, and a is acceleration.
Furthermore we know that centripetal acceleration can be described by the equation:

Where V is the velocity and r is the distance from the center of the circle you are creating while turning
Substituting this into Newton's second law equation, F = ma, we get:


Giving us our centripetal force.

Notice that the centripetal force is perpendicular to the direction you are traveling.

This is important to the functionality of the supercar because if the centripetal force exceeds the frictional force on the body, i.e. the car, then the body will start sliding which could potentially be fatal.

Now let us discuss how the center of mass affects the stability of our body, i.e. the supercar.
Imagine that you are taking a corner at a high velocity, the vehicle is going to want to tilt to the side while the tires are trying keep the vehicle from sliding sideways. Observe the diagram below keeping this idea in mind.

The vehicle will tip when the center of mass is past the point of rotation.

Keep in mind that we are assuming the driver would straighten there wheels at this point, i.e. no centripetal force at this point, and that the car already had a large centripetal force making the tires lift off the ground creating this angle, but as you can see it is much easier for the tall vehicle with a short wheel base to flip over than the low vehicle with a wide wheel base when they are at equivalent angles. This contributes to why supercars are so low and wide.

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