Differential Equations and Nonlinear Mechanics
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 49157, 13 pages
doi:10.1155/2007/49157
Research Article

Numerical Effectiveness of Models and Methods of Integration of the Equations of Motion of a Car

Marek Szczotka,1 Szymon Tengler,1 and Stanislaw Wojciech2

1Department of Mechanics and Informatics, University of Bielsko-Biala, Bielsko-Biala 43-309, Poland
2BOSMAL Automotive Research and Development Center, Bielsko-Biala 43-300, Poland

Received 3 January 2006; Revised 19 October 2006; Accepted 2 November 2006

Academic Editor: Roger Grimshaw

Copyright © 2007 Marek Szczotka et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The paper presents models of car dynamics with varying complexity. Joint coordinates and homogenous transformations are used to model the motion of a car. Having formulated the models of the car, we discuss the influence of the complexity of the model on numerical efficiency of integrating the equations describing car dynamics. Methods with both constant and adaptive step size have been applied. The results of numerical calculations are presented and conclusions are formulated.