Abstract
Digital Mock-Up (DMU) and virtual simulation represent an integrated approach for automotive vehicle design and to reduce time-to-market (TTM) in order to realize products that are closer to the customers needs. TTM represents the global indicator of the vehicle development process: time, cost, quality.
Using DMU, it is possible to develop a virtual model of the product that substitutes the building of a physical mock-up (PMU) and it can be used to validate design project; with virtual simulation designers can analyse all vehicle performances and compare these results against target values. With DMU approach designers can navigate inside the digital model, analyse and simulate product features, visualise geometrical systems and components, communicate with other design teams, obtain virtual approval of design product. The replacement of PMU with a DMU is useful to anticipate design validations, improve quality design and reduce cost.
However, the replacement of PMUs is expected as a long-term process, the current vision is to use both PMU and DMU and analyse the correlation between the two objects. The PMU is characterized by inconsistencies due to the fact that the project is in progress, while the DMU is characterized by nominal design.
We have developed some procedures to analyze the degree of approximation for each vehicle subsystems of CAD models (DMU) and the PMU derived from DMU.
In this paper we will illustrate tools, methodologies and design procedures that we have used to support the vehicle development cycle of a FIAT car. The goal is to validate all the product functionalities on virtual models and to have only a few final verifications on the PMU. The validation has to be done for all the different requirements of vehicle and this can be achieved when the applications share the same data models.