Abstract
As manufacturers demand greater levels of refinement from their vehicles while at the same time looking for reductions in development costs, IDIADA has identified new ways of integrating the real world test environment with rapid simulation technologies to reduce development time and increase performance.
Combined with feedback from customer surveys IDIADA has identified key surfaces within its facilities and surrounding public roads that are most valuable in the development of vehicle ride comfort and NVH. These surfaces typically contain features or characteristics which generate certain excitations that are difficult to recreate in the lab or virtual environment. The profiles of these surfaces have then been meticulously measured at high resolution and further characterised according their specific content.
These surfaces have now been prepared for use in the simulation environment where chassis developments can be advanced more cost effectively. Using efficient simulation procedures together with improved model definition, a good example of this is that NVH engineers can analyse the interaction of engine and suspension to ensure harmony is maintained between them during development.
This paper describes the process that IDIADA has adopted to measure the road surface profiles and the analyses conducted. The application of this technology is given through the presentation of full vehicle simulation results using a correlated vehicle model.
Keywords: Simulation, Ride, Road, Surfaces, Measurement