OFF-ROAD VIRTUAL ASSESSMENT IN A MULTIBODY SIMULATION ENVIRONMENT

In the automotive industry, vehicle simulation has become an invaluable tool to help reduce the time and cost associated with new product development. Significant progress has been made in the correlation of virtual models with physical test data, leading to improved evaluation methods. However, the implementation of this technology for passenger car applications in off-road conditions hasn’t been as extensively explored in literature. This has largely been due to the complexity of modelling tire-soil interactions on deformable terrain. By its nature, modelling tire-road contact poses a challenge, even on a rigid surface. Accurately modelling this contact on a surface that deforms and exhibits complex nonlinear behaviour like the tire furthers the challenge, both mathematically and computationally. This work aims to expand the understanding of off-road simulation by extending established simulation practices used by the industry partner. It combines a high-fidelity vehicle model developed in the Adams multibody dynamics software, a traction controller developed in MATLAB/Simulink, and a semi-empirical tire-soil model to replicate the off-road conditions. The virtual model is correlated with physical test data to determine the capabilities and accuracy of the virtual environment that is produced. Successful correlation would help to reduce the cost and time of vehicle development, while producing safer and more efficient designs under those operating conditions. The conclusion of this work aims to provide another tool for early vehicle analysis within the virtual space. By expanding virtual assessment capabilities to cover a broader range of the expected operating conditions, potential design issues can be caught early, reducing the chance of costly design changes late in the development process.