New Approach in Vehicle Durability Evaluation, Virtual Proving Ground

As a vehicle being tested in the proving ground is under complex conditions in loads and constraints compared to the computer-aided finite element analysis, several specific load cases are used for convenience in the analysis. This paper represents new method for analytical approach to proving ground durability test. Full vehicle of tires, chassis system, and trimmed body in finite elements runs on a digitized proving ground (virtual proving ground), acting forces of the suspensions to the body are continuously acquired at mounts, and stresses are calculated on the body. With the history of stresses, fatigue life of the body is predicted. For validation of this analysis the result of test which was conducted with prototype of a passenger car on the test road is referenced. The digitized road used in the analysis has the same profile of the durability course called Belgian block road. Two results were compared in terms of accelerations and fatigue life. Explicit analysis code, LS-DYNA was used in this analysis for its advantage in nonlinear materials, contacts, and dynamic simulations.