One Dimensional (1-D) Simulation Model for Ride and Comfort Evaluation of a Two Axle Truck

In automotive industry, testing and validation teams are highly dependent on availability of prototype vehicles for testing and evaluation of ride & comfort behavior of vehicles. Special test tracks surfaces are also used (namely Tar road, Express way and driving over a Cleat) to evaluate the ride & comfort through subjective evaluation. Ride is largely affected by transmissibility of road excitations to the driver and other occupant’s seats, influence of suspension, bushes and tire are the major contributors in the transfer path of vibrations. A configurable 1–D simulation model of a Two Axle Truck is developed for quick evaluation of the ride & comfort behavior which is need of the hour for the testing team in optimizing the number of iterations in physical testing. These simulations will help in understanding the ride & comfort behavior and its sensitivity to changes in the component’s characteristics in absence of physical test vehicles. The developed model is then correlated with the physical measurements at identified locations over the vehicle and a correlation of acceleration in Z direction of about 85–90% is achieved with respect to the measured accelerations. More than 90% of correlation is achieved in permissible allowable value of ride index calculated from the simulations w.r.t to the ride index determined from the physical tests. The model developed is a configurable two axle truck model which can be deployed horizontally for any other configuration with minor tweaking which in turn can save resources with increase in productivity.