Computer Simulation of Nonlinear Vehicle Response to Generalized Road Inputs at Ford Light Truck

This paper describes a computer program developed and utilized at Ford Light Truck Engineering for simulating nonlinear vehicle response to generalized rough road inputs. This program, entitled Dynamic Vehicle Simulation (DVS) has been used to estimate rough road durability load environments for a wide variety of components, quantify vehicle ride quality, as well as numerous special event and parametric studies.

The DVS computer code provides the design engineer with load environment information without necessitating an extensive test that requires scarce prototype vehicles. At the same time, this information is obtained at a substantial cost savings over present vehicle test costs and can be readily used to evaluate numerous vehicle configurations and iterations.