Realtime Simulation of Detailed Vehicle and Powertrain Dynamics

This paper describes typical modeling and real-time simulation issues that occur in automotive applications. Real-time simulations of detailed Modelica benchmark models for chassis and powertrain are presented. They demonstrate the powerful real-time capabilities of Dymola and the Modelica modeling language. One of the benchmark models for vehicle dynamics is a detailed model with 72 degrees-of-freedom with bushings in both the front and rear wheel suspensions. It was simulated in real-time with a sample rate of 1 kHz on the RT-LAB environment from OPAL-RT using a Pentium 4, 3066 MHz processor. This is made possible by Dymola's unique and elaborate symbolic processing of the model equations.