Turning radius

Diagram of turning vehicle.

On wheeled vehicles with the common type of front wheel steering (i.e. one, two or even four wheels at the front capable of steering), the vehicle's turning diameter measures the minimum space needed to turn the vehicle around while the steering is set to its maximum displacement from the central 'straight ahead' position - i.e. either extreme left or right. If a marker pen was placed on the point of the vehicle furthest from the center of the turn, the diameter of the circle traced during the turn defines the value of that vehicle's turning diameter. Mathematically, the turning radius would be half of the turning diameter.

The curb-to-curb turning radius, which considers the chassis and wheels only without body protrusions, can be expressed as a simplified function of the wheelbase, tire width, and steering angle:[2]

${\displaystyle turning\ radius={\frac {wheelbase}{\sin {\left(steering\ angle\right)}}}+{\frac {tire\ width}{2}}}$

Aircraft have a similar minimum turning circle concept,[3] generally associated with a standard rate turn, in which an aircraft enters a coordinated turn which changes its heading at a rate of 3° per second, or 180° in one minute. In this case, the turning radius depends on the true airspeed ${\displaystyle v_{t}}$ (in knots) as:

${\displaystyle turning\ radius={\frac {v_{t}}{60\pi }}}$

Turning diameter is sometimes used in everyday language as a generalized term rather than with numerical figures. For example, a wheeled vehicle with a very small turning circle may be described as having a "tight turning radius", meaning that it is easier to turn around very tight corners. Wheeled vehicles with four-wheel steering will have a smaller turning radius than vehicles that steer wheels on one axle.

Exceptions

Turning radius of a vehicle depends on the vehicle type

Technically, the minimum possible turning circle for a vehicle would be where it does not move either forwards or backwards while turning and simply pivots on its central axis. For a rectangular vehicle capable of doing this, the smallest turning circle would be equal to the diagonal length of the vehicle. As an example, some boats can be turned in this way, generally by using azimuth thrusters.

Some wheeled vehicles are designed to spin around their central axis by making all wheels steerable, such as certain lawnmowers and wheelchairs as they do not follow a circular path as they turn. In this case the vehicle is referred to as a "zero turning radius" vehicle. Some camera dollies used in the film industry have a "round" mode which allows them to spin around their z axis by allowing synchronized inverse rotation of their left and right wheel sets, effectively giving them "zero" turning radius.

Many conventionally steerable vehicles (only one axle with steerable wheels) can reverse the direction of travel in a space smaller than the stated turning radius by executing a specialized maneuver, such as a J-turn or similar skid, or in a discontinuous motion such as a three-point turn.

Turning radius ${\displaystyle r}$ and turning diameter ${\displaystyle d}$ of a passenger car: The wall-to-wall turning circle is shown at the top and takes the vehicle front overhang into consideration, while the curb-to-curb turning circle is shown at the bottom.

Other terms are sometimes used synonymously for turning diameter, which can lead to confusion.

There are two methods for measuring the vehicle turning diameter which will give slightly different results. These two methods are called wall-to-wall and curb-to-curb (US spelling), or alternatively kerb-to-kerb (UK spelling).

The wall-to-wall turning circle is the minimum distance between two walls, both of which exceed the height of the vehicle, in which the vehicle can make a U-turn. The kerb-to-kerb turning circle is the minimum distance between two raised curbs, both of which are lower than the lowest body protrusions, in which the vehicle can make a U-turn. The wall-to-wall turning circle is greater than the kerb-to-kerb measure for the same vehicle because of the front and rear body overhangs.[2] One can find these two ways of measuring the turning circle used in auto specifications, for example, a van might be listed as having a turning circle (in meters) of 12.1 (C) / 12.4 (W).

European Union and Switzerland

Road vehicles must be able to carry out a 360 degrees turn on an annulus with an outer radius of 12.5 metres (41 ft) and an inner radius of 5.3 metres (17 ft), measured wall-to-wall. In addition, when entering this annulus, no part of the vehicle can overreach a tangent by more than 80 centimetres (31 in); this tangent is drawn at the outer, 12.5 m limit of the annulus.[6][7][8]

New Zealand

New Zealand requires that road vehicles can perform a 360 degrees turn on a circle with a 25 metres (82 ft) diameter, measured wall-to-wall. The only part of the vehicle that may reach over this limitation are collapsible mirrors.[9]

• Aeroplanes
• Watercraft
• Wheeled vehicles

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