Dynamic Impact Transient Bump Method Development and Application for Structural Feel Performance

Road induced structural feel “vehicle feels solidly built” is strongly related to the vehicle ride [1]. Excellent structural feel requires both structural and suspension dynamics considerations simultaneously. Road induced structural feel is defined as customer facing structural and component responses due to tire force inputs stemming from the unevenness of the road surface. The customer interface acceleration and noise responses can be parsed into performance criteria to provide design and tuning vehicle integration program recommendations. A dynamic impact bump method is developed for vehicle level structural feel performance assessment, diagnostics, and development tuning. Current state of on-road testing has the complexity of multiple impacts, averaging multiple road induced tire patch impacts over a length of a road segment, and test repeatability challenges. A transient impact response method is developed that consists of a totally observed single input at the tire interface and vehicle response, enabling time or frequency domain data processing with minimal signal processing errors. This method is adapted to the ADAMS multi-body dynamics CAE environment. Simplified vehicle integration concept case studies are assessed to establish a relationship between objective and subjective performances. Application of the MBD CAE method and capability development enabled suitable structural feel vehicle integration in math early in the vehicle development process.