Ride Comfort Analysis of Motorcycle Using Virtual Prototype

This research is aimed at developing a multi-body simulation model of a motorcycle, which is useful in studying the ride dynamics. A virtual prototype of a motorcycle has been built in the form of an ADAMS model with 9 degrees of freedom. The virtual model imbibes a parametric approach, which enables upfront optimization of the dynamic behavior of the vehicle in terms of ride & handling characteristics. Comfort and adherence indices proposed by various authors in the past have been studied. Suitable indices are proposed in order to establish a correlation between objective indices of the model with experimental prototype. An experimental motorcycle is built in-line with the virtual model; experimental tests conducted on test tracks, test data acquired & analysed. The indices are computed based on the power spectral densities acquired from both simulations as well as experimental results and a correlation established between the indices. Subjective assessment of ride comfort has been further carried out on selected settings to confirm the results. The virtual model developed is validated through experimental correlation & is thus of immense use in carrying out investigative studies of new designs at the early stages of product development with a wide range of freedom on trials. The virtual prototype exploits the benefits of experimenting with global layout parameters on a faster time scale, thereby enabling more number of design iterations towards achieving an optimal solution. DOE has been implemented to identify important factors & study their interactions. A robust optimization approach has been implemented to include the variations of production & minimize the sensitivity. Rear suspension spring, damping & front damping have been observed to have maximum impact on the ride indices. The simulation & experimental results for ride indices are observed to match well & subjective assessment substantiates the results.