Abstract
Keywords:
Ride comfort, objective rating, subjective rating, DRA, Virtual DRA
Abstract
The ride comfort, one of the vehicle R&H characteristics, is generally graded by an engineer’s subjective rating. However, the subjective rating, in its nature, sometimes lacks its objectiveness, since it highly depends on a test driver’s personal experience. In order to achieve more objective and systematic evaluating method, an objective ride comfort rating method has recently been developed. In this study, the ride comfort of large buses is evaluated using the Virtual DRA (Dynamic Ride-comfort Analyzer). At first, the repeatability of measurement data was examined. In the DRA, correlating a test driver’s subjective rating with the measurement data in a vehicle, we can find a certain relationship between the subjective ratings and the measurement data. For the correlation, a statistical and psychophysical analysis is applied. In the Virtual DRA, the vehicle vibration data are obtained through the dynamic vehicle simulation instead of the measurements. These estimated data from the simulation are used to predict the ride comfort rating through the DRA. Finally, In order to verify validity of the Virtual DRA approach, the predicted ride comfort rating by the Virtual DRA is compared with a driver’s subjective rating.