Active Restraining System for Axle and Complete Car Test Rigs

An important part of vehicle development are design evaluation and validation processes based on testing in the laboratory.

At present there are many complete vehicle, body and suspension road simulator configurations. They all are compromised with respect to complexity and cost. They all have certain advantages and disadvantages. Examples for the evolution of such systems will be discussed. It becomes apparent that new solutions are required if not just the optimization of components and subassemblies is aimed at but the exact evaluation of service life in terms of proving ground kilometers.

The new concept is a complete car test rig with an active restraint system which restrains the car during maneouvre load simulation and leaves it otherwise relatively uninfluenced. The test rig has in total 20 actuators, four at each wheel and another four at the restrained system. This test rig will be described in some detail.