Design and manufacturing of mechanical steering system for parallel parking, zero turning radius, minimum turning radius with traditional turning

Abstract

Many existing cities in the world were not built according to population of cars. Therefore drivers find it difficult to park their car on crowded streets and to turn in small spaces. However it is possible to design cars to suit traffic conditions of the cities. Two wheel steering system has a drawback of demanding wide area because of comparatively larger turning radius. Currently most cars are using traditional steering system, but this system is difficult comparing to parallel parking method. Zero turning radius helps the vehicle rotating about an axis passing through the centre of gravity of vehicle rather than describing a circular path as in conventional turning. The aim of this research is to develop a combined mechanism of parallel parking, zero turn radius, minimum turning and traditional turning for automobiles. All the parts of the steering system are designed so as to meet all the configuration of steering system and to be well-matched to the power train, suspension system and body of the car. The steering system is designed for the car which is designed and manufactured at Bahir Dar Institute of Technology, Bahir Dar University which has the overall dimension of 1200 X 1450mm. After manufacturing of the parts, it had been assembled and ready for testing. The testing results showed that zero turning radius will reduce the turning radius up to 70% and parallel parking also make our life easy and reduce time consumption during parking and to pullout car from traffic jam. Minimum radius turn configuration will reduce the turning radius of vehicle about 36% compare to traditional steering mechanism.