Theory of Ground Vehicles, 3rd Edition [Hardcover]

J. Y. Wong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0471354619 | ISBN-13: 978-0471354611 | Edition: 3

An updated edition of the classic reference on the dynamics of road and off-road vehicles

As we enter a new millennium, the vehicle industry faces greater challenges than ever before as it strives to meet the increasing demand for safer, environmentally friendlier, more energy efficient, and lower emissions products. Theory of Ground Vehicles, Third Edition gives aspiring and practicing engineers a fundamental understanding of the critical factors affecting the performance, handling, and ride essential to the development and design of ground vehicles that meet these requirements.

As in previous editions, this book focuses on applying engineering principles to the analysis of vehicle behavior. A large number of practical examples and problems are included throughout to help readers bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Covering a wide range of topics concerning the dynamics of road and off-road vehicles, this Third Edition is filled with up-to-date information, including:

* The Magic Formula for characterizing pneumatic tire behavior from test data for vehicle handling simulations

* Computer-aided methods for performance and design evaluation of off-road vehicles, based on the author's own research

* Updated data on road vehicle transmissions and operating fuel economy

* Fundamentals of road vehicle stability control

* Optimization of the performance of four-wheel-drive off-road vehicles and experimental substantiation, based on the author's own investigations

* A new theory on skid-steering of tracked vehicles, developed by the author.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

An updated edition of the classic reference on the dynamics of road and off-road vehicles

As we enter a new millennium, the vehicle industry faces greater challenges than ever before as it strives to meet the increasing demand for safer, environmentally friendlier, more energy efficient, and lower emissions products. Theory of Ground Vehicles, Third Edition gives aspiring and practicing engineers a fundamental understanding of the critical factors affecting the performance, handling, and ride essential to the development and design of ground vehicles that meet these requirements.

As in previous editions, this book focuses on applying engineering principles to the analysis of vehicle behavior. A large number of practical examples and problems are included throughout to help readers bridge the gap between theory and practice.

Covering a wide range of topics concerning the dynamics of road and off-road vehicles, this Third Edition is filled with up-to-date information, including:

• The Magic Formula for characterizing pneumatic tire behavior from test data for vehicle handling simulations

• Computer-aided methods for performance and design evaluation of off-road vehicles, based on the author’s own research

• Updated data on road vehicle transmissions and operating fuel economy

• Fundamentals of road vehicle stability control

• Optimization of the performance of four-wheel-drive off-road vehicles and experimental substantiation, based on the author’s own investigations

• A new theory on skid-steering of tracked vehicles, developed by the author.

About the Author

J. Y. WONG, PhD, DSc, is Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Internationally recognized in the field of road and off-road vehicle dynamics, he is also the author of Terramechanics and Off-Road Vehicles and is a member of the editorial boards of a number of international journals. He has received numerous awards from learned societies for his research.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 3 edition (March 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471354619
• ISBN-13: 978-0471354611
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,699,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Handles both road vehicles and tracked vehicles, July 23, 2005

By 

Maxim Masiutin (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Theory of Ground Vehicles, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

The book covers dynamics of ground vehicles over hard surfaces and unprepared terrain - mechanics of vehicle-terrain interactions, terramechanics. Tracked vehicles such as a military tank or a bulldozer that is propelled by tracks instead of pneumatic tires are also covered in detail in this book. There is also attention to air-cushion vehicles (hovercrafts). However, the guided ground vehicles which are constrained to move along a fixed path, such as railway vehicles and tracked levitated vehicles are not covered in this book.

There is a very good chapter on the mechanics of pneumatic tires, which has both theoretical and practical information. Attention is also given to performance of tires on wet surfaces. This issue is frequently overlooked by the other vehicle dynamics books; however, the behavior of tires on wet surfaces is of considerable interest from a safety point of view, as many accidents occur on slippery roads. The tire is also analyzed as both spring and a damper. There are useful graphs and tables in this chapter, as well as throughout the whole book. The table of damping coefficient of tires shows that the damping coefficient of tire drops with increase of the inflation pressure.

Mechanics of vehicle-terrain interactions studies distribution of stresses in the terrain under vehicular loads, empirical methods for predicting off-road vehicle performance, a computer-aided method for evaluating the performance of vehicles with flexible tracks, and so on.

Performance characteristics are covered separately for road and off-road vehicles. For the road vehicles, the author analyzes equation of motion and maximum tractive effort, aerodynamic forces and moments, vehicle power plant and transmission characteristics, prediction of vehicle performance, operating fuel economy, engine and transmission matching and braking performance. For off-road vehicles, the author examines drawbar performance, fuel economy of cross-country operations, transport productivity and efficiency, mobility map and mobility profile, selection of vehicle configurations for off-road operations.

Handling characteristics of road vehicles and steering of tracked vehicles are also separately analyzed.

There is a very good chapter on vehicle ride characteristics and human response to vibration.

I also recommend "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics" by William F. Milliken and Douglas L. Milliken, which is also a good compromise between theoretical and practical information.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, September 20, 2010

By 

Chandller - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Theory of Ground Vehicles (Hardcover)

This is a good book. It is not all inclusive however and is semi-technical with not very many workout problems.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much information, April 30, 2009

By 

Tyler A. Edwards (Athens, Oh USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Theory of Ground Vehicles (Hardcover)

Theory of Ground Vehicles by J.Y. Wong (4th edition) is an excellent resource for automotive engineers. There are so many plots, visuals and other useful resources that it is almost overwhelming. However, if you know a specific topic you are interested in learning about this vast wealth of information proves extremely useful. I have only been focusing on the performance of road vehicles chapters in the book so I haven't had a chance to look at other sections in detail. However, there is significant discussion about off-road vehicles as well.