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[WSRP23] Optimizing racing lines

Posted 1 year ago

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POSTED BY: Isaiah Yang
6 Replies
Posted 1 month ago

Hi Isaiah, I'm currently doing my Math Internal Assessment for IB diploma and am looking at using the euler spiral to find the optimal driving line for the 2018 Singapore grand prix and compare it to the driving line taken by Lewis Hamilton in his 1:36:15min lap around the circuit. I was wondering if you could share the readings you used to identify which segment of the euler spiral corresponded to the corner that you are looking at. It'll really be a massive help! Thank you so much!

POSTED BY: Jayden Foo
Posted 2 months ago

Interesting work. However, I would like to point out that the uniform45LeftTurn looks weird because both sides of the curved road are drawn using the same corner radius. I propose this change:

POSTED BY: Gustavo Delfino
Posted 3 months ago

Interesting stuff, but as a racer, I could offer you some thoughts on one thing for certain:

Your lines seem to suggest a single change of radius with respect to time, and that's not what happens in a real corner. The line begins with a curve (a spiral perhaps, but perhaps not) where the radius is decreasing as the car is slowing to some minimum, and then as the car accelerates, that radius starts to increase. Those two curves are not the same, because no racing car accelerates as quickly as it decelerates, but obviously at the moment of transition, they have the same radius.

POSTED BY: Alan Baker
Posted 2 months ago

Thank you for the reply! Sorry for such a late response, but it's been a while since I posted this. I am certainly surprised that someone found it but am very happy for the feedback! I have been working on this project since this post and have made some big upgrades that I haven't finished/posted. I have utilized much more of a mathematic, physics, and optimization-based approach to this question that abandons the predefined Euler spiral path that represents the racing line in this post. But would you be able to expand more on your point? I don't think I completely understand your explanation and feel like it'd still apply to my approach now.

I'd also be open to discussing more about my current progress on this project and some other racing projects that I haven't posted if you are interested. Thank you!

POSTED BY: Isaiah Yang
Posted 2 months ago

Sorry it took me a little while to reply.

I'd be happy to expand a little on what I said. This isn't a really great way to have a back-and-forth conversation, but let me first ask:

Are you familiar with the "friction circle" concept?

If you are, here's a way of thinking about a couple of important cases for a race car in a corner:

First, consider the case of a simple circular track. If the car is following a circular path, then the combined vector of all of the forces from the tires must point towards the centre of the circle (centripetal force). That force will be both a combination of lateral force (in the car's frame of reference) and forward force (in the car's frame of reference) and the car will be yawed slightly so that the combined vector of those forces points at the centre. At maximum speed, that combined vector will of course be right at the outer edge of the car's friction circle.

OK, now let's examine a simple 90 degree corner, and let's assume that the car is at the perfect entry point for the corner at the maximum speed from which it can start. Let us further assume for this ideal case, that the friction circle concept is ideal and doesn't take account of the fact that there are times when the cars ability to accelerate (to generate force forward) is less than the friction the tires could deliver and instead, we are free to use the same maximum force in any direction with respect to the car's direction.

Now. Let's brake down the car's velocity vector in two components at 90 degrees to each other and with each vector pointing 45° from the car's direction of travel at the moment of corner entry. So there is one velocity vector parallel to the bisector of the corner, but pointed two the outside of the corner (call it "v"), and there another vector normal to that one, but pointed "across the corner" to where the car will end up (call it "u"). I don't want to draw diagrams at the moment, but can you envision it?

From the symmetry of the situation—with no adjustments for the difference between acceleration forces and braking forces, we can see that wherever the car is at the moment it begins cornering (after having braked in a straight line to get to the proper corner entry speed and location), it is going to be in the same position at the end of the corner; reflected across the bisector of the corner, but with the velocity vector changed only in the component parallel to the bisector. That component of velocity will be changed from pointing outside the corner to one pointing INSIDE. The other component—the component across the corner will be UNCHANGED.

So now we see for a 90° corner, we're changing one vector from v to -v, and therefore the force we need to put on the car to create that change (while never changing u at all) is going to be a force vector in the -u direction at all times. And since we're using an idealized friction circle, that force is going to be constant in magnitude at the outermost edge of that circle. All the while, the velocity, v, isn't changing.

In your mind's eye, imagine a corner coming down at a 45° diagonal from the upper left, then making a simple circular bend so that it exits at a 45° diagonal to the upper right.

Imagine a car at the entry point on the left. Moving across that corner horizontally at a constant velocity with its velocity in the vertical axis changing from straight down to straight up changing at a constant rate.

If the car really is capable of the same maximum friction force in any direction—a perfect friction circle, then the curve that describes the car's movement through the corner is a simple parabola.

POSTED BY: Alan Baker

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