Simulation of Vehicle Pothole Test and Techniques Used

During the service life, the impacts of vehicle against potholes result in damage for the wheel and suspension components. Knowing the internal forces generated in the suspension components during this event would helpful to design the critical components. Measurement of these loads in physical test is more costly and not feasible for new designs. There are several virtual tools and methods available to predict the loads during this event. Using the ABAQUS FE solver, the non-linear dynamic behavior could be captured accurately during the impact. The tire model plays an important role during this event by absorbing energy during the impact. The CAE tire model is validated with some physical tests results and it is used in the vehicle pothole impact simulation. In vehicle pothole physical test, the force and acceleration measurement are taken and compared with the CAE results. The effect of the tire pressure variations and the vehicle speed at pothole impact is also studied. This paper explains more about the modeling of tires, vehicle, simulation methodology and the correlation of the CAE results against the test values.