Assessing Road Load Predictions: A Comprehensive Review and Comparative Analysis of Real-World versus Numerical Simulation

Road loads, encompassing aerodynamic drag, rolling resistance, and gravitational effects, significantly impact vehicle design and performance by influencing factors such as fuel efficiency, handling, and overall driving experience. While traditional coastdown tests are commonly used to measure road loads, they can be influenced by environmental variations and are costly. Consequently, numerical simulations play a pivotal role in predicting and optimizing vehicle performance in a cost-effective manner. This article aims to conduct a literature review on road loads and their effects on vehicle performance, leveraging experimental data from past studies from other researchers to establish correlations between measured road loads and existing mathematical models. By validating these correlations using real-world measurements, this study contributes to refining predictive models used in automotive design and analysis. The simulations in this study, utilizing five distinct empirical correlations, demonstrated strong alignment with actual track test results, with coefficients of determination (R²) ranging from 0.84 to 0.97.