Tire and Vehicle Dynamics, 3rd Edition

Chapter 6

Theory of the Wheel Shimmy Phenomenon

Chapter Outline

6.1. Introduction

6.2. The Simple Trailing Wheel System with Yaw Degree of Freedom

6.3. Systems with Yaw and Lateral Degrees of Freedom

6.3.1. Yaw and Lateral Degrees of Freedom with Rigid Wheel/Tire (Third Order)

6.3.2. The Fifth-Order System

6.4. Shimmy and Energy Flow

6.4.1. Unstable Modes and the Energy Circle

6.4.2. Transformation of Forward Motion Energy into Shimmy Energy

6.5. Nonlinear Shimmy Oscillations

6.1 Introduction

As an application of the theory developed in the previous chapter, we will study the self-excited oscillatory motion of a wheel about (an almost) vertical steering axis. This type of unstable motion is usually designated as the wheel shimmy oscillation. ...