SAWE Technical Papers

@inproceedings{3856,

title = {3856. Weight Management of Ground Vehicles: A Mass Properties Control Framework for Road, Off-Road, and Special-Purpose Platforms},

author = {Hans-Peter Dahm},

url = {https://www.sawe.org/product/3856-weight-management-of-ground-vehicles-a-mass-properties-control-framework-for-road-off-road-and-special-purpose-platforms/},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-05-21},

booktitle = {85th SAWE International Conference on Mass Properties Engineering},

publisher = {Society of Allied Weight Engineers, Inc.},

abstract = {Ground vehicles are frequently managed by curb mass, gross vehicle mass, or payload, but those scalar measures do not adequately control the engineering risk created by the distribution and maturity of mass. This paper presents a practical mass properties engineering framework for weight management of ground vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles, electric bicycles, construction machines, special-purpose vehicles, and tracked platforms. The objective is to convert weight management from late-stage reporting into a closed-loop control process that supports architecture decisions, homologation, stability, braking, steering, energy use, payload, and lifecycle configuration control. The proposed approach combines top-down allocation of mass, center of gravity, axle loads, wheel loads, inertias, and reserves with bottom-up roll-ups from computer-aided design, bills of material, supplier data, and physical measurement. It distinguishes current mass from forecast mass, mass growth allowance from uncertainty, and certification limits from engineering margins. The method uses a defined mass state, a vehicle-family-specific risk register, a gate-based verification plan, and an escalation path whenever not-to-exceed values, axle reactions, center-of-gravity limits, or stability constraints are threatened. The central finding is that the best ground-vehicle program is not necessarily the lightest program; it is the program whose mass properties are controlled at the right level of maturity for each decision. For passenger cars and performance vehicles, the dominant risks are variant accretion, battery placement, unsprung mass, and inertia drift. For trucks and buses, payload, axle-load reserve, bodybuilder integration, roof-mounted systems, and rollover sensitivity dominate. For two-wheel vehicles, rider, battery, and luggage locations must be treated as part of the system. For construction and tracked vehicles, implement position, ballast, soil pressure, and transport configuration require explicit mass states. The paper concludes with an implementation checklist, for example status record, and peer-review checklist intended for adaptation to specific ground-vehicle programs. Keywords: mass properties engineering; weight management; ground vehicles; center of gravity; axle loads; moments of inertia; mass growth; uncertainty; vehicle development; verification.},

keywords = {Ground Vehicles},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{3792,

title = {3792. Road Accident Reconstruction: The Role of the Inertia Properties},

author = {Massimiliano Gobbi and Gianpiero Mastinu and Giorgio Previati},

url = {https://www.sawe.org/product/paper-3792},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-05-20},

urldate = {2023-05-20},

booktitle = {82nd Annual Conference, Cocoa Beach, Florida},

pages = {15},

publisher = {Society of Allied Weight Engineers, Inc.},

address = {Cocoa Beach, Florida},

abstract = {The reconstruction of car accidents is a critical step in understanding the causes of an accident and, in case, for attributing responsibilities. Therefore, the reconstruction must be realized by considering all of the possible sources of error and misrepresentation. Since such activity relies on dynamic models of the colliding vehicles, mass properties (mass, centre of gravity location, inertia tensor) play a crucial role. 

The present papers aims to quantify the requirements in the knowledge of the inertia properties for a proper reconstruction of car accidents. The analysis is performed with reference to the case of two colliding vehicles. After a detailed description of the model employed for the reconstruction, dynamic simulation are utilized to assess the required accuracy, with particular reference to the effects of the uncertainty in mass, longitudinal location of the centre of gravity and yaw moment of inertia. It turns out that even relatively small errors in the definition of such parameters can lead to large errors in the reconstruction of the state of the colliding vehicles before the accident. Also, the variation in the inertia properties of the vehicles due to the crash is investigated. Engineers involved in car accident reconstruction should be aware of the importance of correctly estimate the inertia properties of vehicle, both before and after the accident, to obtain a correct estimation of the actual dynamic of the accident.},

keywords = {Ground Vehicles},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{3793,

title = {3793. Effects of Mass and Pitch Moment of Inertia on Vehicle Suspension Design With Race Car Example},

author = {Pietro Stabile and Federico Ballo and Giorgio Previati},

url = {https://www.sawe.org/product/paper-3793},

year  = {2023},

date = {2023-05-20},

urldate = {2023-05-20},

booktitle = {82nd Annual Conference, Cocoa Beach, Florida},

pages = {11},

publisher = {Society of Allied Weight Engineers, Inc.},

address = {Cocoa Beach, Florida},

abstract = {The present paper addresses the topic of studying the influence of the main vehicle inertia parameters on the suspension design. A simple four degrees-of-freedom half-car model is used to describe the dynamic behaviour of vehicles running on randomly profiled roads. The response of the system is analysed by evaluating three performance indexes, namely driver discomfort, road holding and working space, referring to the standard deviations of driver seat vertical acceleration, force at ground and relative displacement between wheels, respectively. The effect of varying wheel mass, vehicle mass, centre of gravity longitudinal location and pitch moment of inertia on the three performance indexes is investigated. The proposed approach is applied to the design of the suspension system of a vehicle conceived for efficiency-based competitions. Based on these results, considerations on the best location for battery pack and ballast are drawn.},

keywords = {Ground Vehicles, Student Papers},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}