Powertrain system virtual model for full vehicle simulations

Abstract

The process of releasing a new car is an intricate work that involves many resources in an automotive company. The development of a competitive vehicle with high-quality requirements for the 21st-century market is a challenging task. As the capacity of Computer-Aided Engineering tools has evolved, the automotive industry is moving towards Virtual Product Development intending to reduce the number of physical prototypes. This trend is reducing not only the cost of a new car by minimizing the physical tests but also the time of the project development thanks to the quick iterations of the vehicle subsystems. The Loads Analysis Group of the Company uses Multi-body Dynamics software to develop full vehicle simulations. These simulations run through digitalized roads that represent the Company’s test tracks. The behavior of the virtual vehicles is correlated against the physical measurement data to guarantee the correct modeling of the new prototype. The correct characterization of all the subsystems of the vehicle is essential. A correct model characterization can predict the performance of a new tuning, weight difference, or other component change. This thesis is focused on developing a virtual model of the Powertrain system to improve the correlation between the virtual model and the physical test.