In its global development process General Motors
Company-Powertrain follows a consequent "Road to Lab to
Math" strategy, substituting road and laboratory tests with
virtual tests. Hence simulation increasingly becomes a central
aspect in the vehicle development process. With increasing accuracy
of the single tools and a smart combination of different tools the
credibility of the whole simulation chain comes closer to testing
results.
Furthermore the simulation gives us the possibility to change
early and easily the product attributes in regard to functionality,
robustness, comfort, etc. The enormous product cost resulting from
a high amount of different test samples can be decreased by an
early screening of the desired product functionality.
Within General Motors Company-Powertrain a combined clutch
simulation approach is used which joins the simulation tools
Matlab/Simulink, LMS AMESim, Abaqus, Fortran, StarCCM+, NX
Unigraphics to a powerful development process.
A dry friction clutch is beside its main functionality, building
the connecting link between engine and transmission, often the
weakest link in the complete powercube (P₃). The customer
expectations on the clutch system are that it is comfortably
operable over lifetime under consideration of all known cases of
tolerances out of the serial production.