The way automobiles are developed today is quite different from how it was done in 1960. The most visible changes are the different role played by the Tier 1 supplier community, the use of Computer Aided Engineering tools, and the increased emphasis on continuous improvements in development cost, time to market, and product quality. In particular, CAE has played a pivotal role in this drive for “faster, cheaper, and better”.
Today, all automotive OEMs and all Tier 1 suppliers are using CAE tools for virtual prototyping. Yet there remain serious issues regarding the combined use of physical and virtual prototypes. Virtual prototyping does not benefit a lot from physical prototyping activities in the same company and vice versa. The problem is best stated in the following quote: “Everybody believes the test results, except the test engineer; nobody believes the analysis results, except the analyst.”
This paper will address integrating physical and virtual testing of prototypes, in particular for durability design applications. It will introduce a new approach to damage calculations, using virtual prototypes and modal stress recovery methods.