An Integrated Approach Using Multi-Body Dynamics Simulation & Driving Simulator towards Chassis Development for an SUV Vehicle

Driving dynamics performance is one of the key customer attributes to be developed during product development. In the vehicle development process, freezing the hardware of the chassis aggregates is one of the major priorities to kick off the other vehicle development activities. The current work involves the development of a multilink suspension for an SUV class vehicle. Typically, each OEM performs several product development loops for maturing the vehicle design. The driving dynamics performance evaluation and tuning happens on a physical vehicle with the driver in Loop. Tuning of suspension parameter on the physical vehicle entails actual replacement of parts/components. This encompasses multiple tuning cycles in product development associated with increased cost and test time.

To reduce the product development time and cost while delivering first time right chassis configuration, we took an approach of getting driver-in-loop through driving simulator in the concept phase. The driving simulator is a driver-in-loop system which can simulate real-world driving conditions in a digital domain. A few vehicle configurations matured through CAE were assessed on the driving simulator. One of the best configurations was finalized leading to freezing the hardware of the chassis aggregates. This configuration underwent fine-tuning online wherein no physical tuning hardware samples were required to be developed. This helped us perform objective and subjective evaluations of the vehicle being developed. The use of a driving simulator enabled freezing the chassis hardware and also arrive at the best possible tuned vehicle configuration. This final configuration is signed off for proto development.