Dave Crolla - dynamic behaviour of BLOODHOUND

I’ve been fascinated by vehicles from a very early age – and I’ve been extremely lucky in having the opportunity to spend a career on the design of a wide range of vehicles from the slowest – agricultural tractors – to the fastest – ThrustSSC and BLOODHOUND SSC.

I spent much of my life as a Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Leeds, but I retired early in 2001 and moved to Arkengarthdale in the Yorkshire Dales to spend time fell walking, mountain biking and playing Irish music!

Nevertheless amid all this enjoyment, I still find plenty of time to continue my engineering interests. At the University of Leeds, I retain my research links with the Vehicle Dynamics and Control Group that I built up and I am series editor for a textbook series on Automotive Engineering for Elsevier which now embraces 10 textbooks on a wide range of vehicle engineering and technology topics. My own specialism is in vehicle dynamics and control and I have contributed over 200 journals and conference papers in this subject area. My special topics of interest have covered the ride, handling, safety, stability and braking of vehicles.

I am also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Automotive Engineering, Cranfield University where I am involved with research activities in vehicle dynamics, chassis control, hybrid vehicle powertrains and low carbon vehicles. I am course leader for a series of short courses at Cranfield on Chassis Dynamics and Control (CDC).

I have been a Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland since 2004 and I have been active with their strategic research and development plans, links with local industry, e.g. Nissan, through AMAP, overseas and teaching developments in automotive technology and research in automotive mechatronics, driving simulator and human factors.

I have developed a strong international profile from these activities; until 2007 I was Vice President of FISITA with responsibility for all technical issues. FISITA represents 130,000 professional automotive engineers world-wide from 27 member organisations.  Also, I regularly act on technical and organising committees for international conferences: current and recent commitments include IMechE, FISITA, EAEC, AVEC, MOVIC, AUTOTECH, ISTVS and SAE.  I have lectured widely to academic and industrial audiences throughout Europe, USA, Japan and China.

A young David Crolla

Working on the BLOODHOUND project

I still like a challenge – and one of the key issues in the dynamic behaviour of BLOODHOUND SSC is the directional stability over its entire operating speed range, from 0 to 1000 mile/h. The vehicle must also be able to steer and turn like a conventional wheeled vehicle, but its prime objective is extremely high speed, straight running rather than cornering as is the case, for example, with high speed racing vehicles. I am using mathematical modelling to try and predict the safe and stable behaviour of the vehicle through the subsonic and supersonic speed ranges.