Process Automation to Generate Road Drive Files in Laboratory Testing Using Virtual Iterations Method

At present, vehicle testing in laboratory is one of the important phase to quicken the product validation process. In the early phase of laboratory testing it is required to evaluate the strength of the vehicle structure through physical rig setup which represents the consumer’s usage. Two and Multiple poster input excitation are among the laboratory rig testing to represent the actual road are used to predict the durability of vehicle components. The road inputs through the poster are known as drive files, a feedback controlled system which reproduces the track or real road recorded specimen’s accelerations, displacements and strains in laboratory. Derivation of drive files in poster testing requires iteration of physical specimen to exactly replicate the actual road. This paper discusses about generation of drive files as inputs for poster actuation with virtual model(as a substitute for actual model)which is applicable in areas of vehicle durability and ride comfort studies. For the reason to minimize the time,cost,man-machine hours and energy, an automation is developed to simulate the validated virtual model with iterations process to generate the road files for further use in physical and virtual test.The paper details on the procedure followed traditionally and what changes have been made in the current process to generate road drive input files.