Establishment of Chassis Dynamometers for Commercial Vehicles

The Chassis Dynamo-meter system provides a means of testing vehicle in place of driving them on the test track or highway. The machine simulates road conditions in speed, torque or road load control modes, allowing the vehicle to experience the same forces as it would be on the test track or highway. Chassis dynamo-meter with its 24 x 7 capabilities can perform several value-added tests to assess vehicle performance while operating under load in short period of time and with other intangible benefits such as well-timed product launch, reduced breakdown time and faster failure resolution, Dynamo-meter is worthy of an investment. However, the scale of investment and constraints in required infrastructure limits the number of dynamo-meters in a R&D center of Original Equipment Manufacturers. With such limitations, comes the challenges of sizing dynamo-meter and infrastructural requirements in a way that it caters to wide range of products (GVW 2500 kg to 70000 kg) in the portfolio of OEMs. This paper deliberates on the approach taken to address these challenges. Products in the portfolio and test cases that can be performed on a dynamo-meter are listed. Specifications of a dynamo-meter are studied in detail. Tractive force and acceleration are the key specifications for designing a dynamo-meter. In line with that, data were collected to calculate tractive force and acceleration requirement for combination of test cases and vehicles in the portfolio. Summarizing the calculations, the effect of choosing the final requirements in terms of cost and configuration were studied, analyzed and finalized to optimize the requirements. On similar lines, infrastructural requirements were studied and analyzed to arrive at best solution.