Vehicle Inertial Parameters-Measured Values and Approximations

<div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper describes an apparatus, called the Inertial Parameter Measurement Device (IPMD), which recently has been developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at its Vehicle Research and Test Center. The IPMD measures the center of gravity height and the pitch, roll, and yaw moments of inertia of a vehicle.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The first section of this paper describes the features, capabilities, limitations, and design of the IFMD. This is followed by a presentation of the vehicle parameters that have been measured by it, to date.</div> <div class="htmlview paragraph">The final section of the paper presents several commonly used, and one proposed, rules of thumb for estimating inertial parameters. Data from measurements made by the IPMD are used to show the validity of these rules. Curves obtained by fitting the measured data are also shown for the moments of inertia as functions of the vehicle weight.</div>