Lateral Acceleration Sensor
Application
Sense the lateral acceleration of the vehicle.
Design
In the interior of the sensor, a small mass element is attached to a movable lever arm which is deflected by lateral acceleration.
Function
- Between two electrically charged stationary plates having the same polarity, an electrically charged silicon element having the opposite polarity is attached to the end of a cantilever arm.
- Between these three plates, two electric fields are generated by the capacitances C1 and C2.
- The capacitances C1 and C2 change in response to lateral acceleration. This change can be used to calculate the direction and amount of lateral acceleration acting on the vehicle.
- The same sensor can also be used as longitudinal acceleration sensor if it is installed in the direction of travel (e.g. VW 4 motion with Haldex clutch).
- For 0 g lateral acceleration, the sensor produces an output signal with a voltage of 2.5 V.
Other
- The signal of the lateral acceleration sensor alone cannot trigger an ESC intervention. The sensor is mainly used for estimating the coefficient of friction.
- The installation location of the lateral acceleration sensor is more critical than that of the yaw-rate sensor (lever arm).
- The installation location may not be changed after repairs.