vertical dynamics of an offroad race car

(MotionSolve)
( Altair MBD-conference USA )

Dirk Bordiehn, Katja Fritzsch

04.11.2009

VW-M

agenda

Volkswagen Motorsport (history, field of action) ................................ 3

Simulation at VW-M example RaceTouareg ................................ 4

MBD simulation

Challenge load identification .............................................................. 5

MBD model ....................................................................................... 7
- spring/damper ............................................................................... 8
- tire model ..................................................................................... 10
Results ............................................................................................ 13
Summary and conclusion ................................................................ 16

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

motorsport at Volkswagen
VW-Motorsport GmbH (since 2004), 100% subsidiary of VWAG
CEO: Kris Nissen
150 employees
competing in rally raid, track racing and touring car
championships
rally raid:

- marathon rally world cup

- main event: Dakar Rally (Race Touareg)
- success in Dakar 2009: double victory (over all)
1st victory of a diesel powered car

Touring cars:
- ADAC Volkswagen Polo cup in Germany, Polo cup in India
- JettaTDI cup in USA, Scirocco cup in China, etc.

Track racing:
- 24h race at Nrburgring (Scirocco)
- success in GT24 2009: place 1+3 in class 2L-turbo (SP3T)
place 1+2 in class altern.fuel. (AT)
- participation and engine supplier Formula 3 (EuroSeries,
GB-F3, ATS cup D)
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

simulation at VW-M example RaceTouareg

vehicle dynamics (MBD)

suspension (FEA)

intake / radiator (CFD)

chassis (FEA)

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

aerodynamics (CFD)

engine (FEA)

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

load identification
Why do we have problems to acquire representative loads?
production vehicle development:
standard scenarios:
- vehicle crash due to EuroNCAP: velocity v = compulsory
barrier = compulsory
post processing = standardized

regulations,
laws
based on
empiric studies

- comfort analysis (NVH: acoustic, vibration, static)

1. BiW eigenfrequency > ##Hz
steering wheel vibration > ##Hz
test and validation phases

fictitious values
bottom-factor

risk: delayed start of production, recall campaign

motorsport:
no standard scenarios:
- comparison to preceding model
too late!
- analysis of occurred damage
no large-scale test series, were driving in prototypes.
risk: total failure, injury to persons
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

we have to
- find reasonable and ample
load assumptions
- make robust predictions

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

load identification simplified scenarios

The real load situation (offroad) is very complex and barely reproducible.
Standard tests of production vehicles (e.g. VWs test area Ehra) are not applicable
for this car.
own simplified test scenarios
Advantage of simplified tests:
fewer parameters in the simulation
(rigid ground, only vertical dynamics)
reproducible
small local test area useable

RaceTouareg on artificial hill

Important despite simplicity!

Example: KickBack as accident.

accident Dakar 2005

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

accident CER 2008

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

MBD model
The MBD-model is based on submodels:

spring/damper

front axle:

suspension FA, damper FA, spring FA, steering FA, power train FA

rear axle:

suspension RA, damper RA, spring RA, power train RA

chassis:

rigid BiW with connection to ground

road:

profile and visualization, interaction tyre-2-road

payload:

spare wheels, fuel tank (>90gal)

tire model

parameter study
(not shown in this presentation)

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

MBD model spring/damper

suspension in principle:
Aufbau
vehicle

Helfer-a.
undhelper
Hauptfeder
main
spring

Dmpfer mit
damper
w.Anschlag
bump stop

Gasdruck
gas
pressure

Rad
wheel

Force [N]

ride height

compression
rebound
travel [mm]
velocity [mm/s]

suspension (clean) suspension (dirty)

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

MBD model spring/damper

Generation of spring function by forms (datasets)
spring parameters

function is generated from the input data

stiffness helper spring 2

free length main spring 1
free length helper spring 1
free length main spring 2
free length helper spring 2
block length main spring 1
block length helper spring 1

coupler

3
Force [N]

stiffness main spring 2

main spring

stiffness helper spring 1

helper spr.

stiffness main spring 1

2
1
compression

rebound

travel [mm]

block length main spring 2

block length helper spring 2
preload length main spring 1

xmin

preload length helper spring 1

coupler height main spring 2
coupler height helper spring 2

additional advantage:
visual verification (spring length
changes with input values)
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

3) transfer point

2) compr.

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

1) rebound

MBD model tire model

All loads pass through the tire
tire model is very important in vehicle dynamics
Unfortunately ...
MotionSolve9.0 has no tire model
external tire models cant be linked to MS9.0
only very few tire data is available (deformable ground?)
tire properties must be approximated by MS-basic functions
Which properties are important (in vertical dynamics) ?
How can they be modeled in MS/MV9.0 ?
parameter

importance known?

lateral stiffness

radial stiffness

++

damping
friction

method

versatility

easy to
use?
+

RigidBody contact contact form.

(implicit or modeled)
impact form.

springs

variable

active force

variable

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

10

MBD model tire model

static simulation of radial stiffness to verify different modeling techniques
Impact-Funktion vs. Kontaktfunktion

contact stiffness

Fimp.

3.50E+04
Impact-Funktion
IMPACT function
Kontakt
contactH3D
H3D
Kontakt
Kegel
contactzwei
2 cones
contactZylinder
cylinder
Kontakt
measured
stiffness
Steifigkeit
nach
Gleichnung 17

3.00E+04

force

Vertikale Kraft Fz [N]

2.50E+04

2.00E+04

1.50E+04

1.00E+04

5.00E+03

0.00E+00
0.00E+00

1.00E+01

2.00E+01

3.00E+01

displacement
Verformung [mm]

4.00E+01

5.00E+01

6.00E+01

rigid body contact produces unstable stiffness results

only the active IMPACT-force reproduces the target stiffness well
Fimpact = kze c
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

damp.
max
yu
xu

STEP-function
max.penetr.

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

11

MBD model tire model

IMPACT-force shows good stiffness results between two markers.
How to combine that with an arbitrary road profile?

Fwheel

lots of local markers !

artificial hill with markers
(autom. generated from points of a spline)

The force on the wheel

is the total of all local forces.

Fwheel = F0 + F1 + ... + Fx-1 + Fx-1 + Fx-1 + ... + F100

With the implementation of

the STEP-function only the
markers near the wheel have
non-zero values.

= 0 + 0 + ... + 70% + 30% + 0 + ... + 0

= 100%

Advantage of this very simple tire model:

easy to automate (only new spline needed)
mathematical representation leads to fast and smooth results
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

12

results kinematic and compliance

test

simulation

verification:
comparison of
- k&c test (full vehicle) and
- k&c simulation of single axle
close match

k&c test bench @ VW-Wolfsburg

k&c simulation of a front axle

track width change

camber angle change

Spurweitennderung Vorderachse

Sturzwinkelnderung Vorderachse

130

130

130

120

120

120

110

110

110

-40

-50

-50

-50

-60

-60

-60

-70

-70

-80

-80

wheel travel [mm]

-40

wheel travel [mm]

140

wheel travel [mm]

140

100

100

90

90

80

70

80

70

60

70

40
30
20
10
0

60

Federweg [mm]

Federweg [mm]

60

50

50
40
30
20
10
0

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

10

track width [mm]

15

20

Spurweite vorne [mm]

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

25

30

30
20
10

-20

-30

-30

40

-10

-20

-20

50

-10

-10

-30

100

90

80

Federweg [mm]

toe angle change

Spurwinkelnderung Vorderachse

140

-30
-40

-70

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

camber angle [mm]

Spurwinkel vorne [min]

10

-80
-2.5

-2.0

-1.5

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

toe angle [mm]

1.5

2.0

Sturzwinkel vorne [grad]

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

13

2.5

results artificial hill

front axle
hits obstacle

travel [mm]

rear axle
hits obstacle

pretensioning
of rear axle

time [s]

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

14

results cuvette (natural depression)

force [N]

bump stop active

displacement [mm] or velocity [mm/s]

travel [mm]

wheel travel

flat spot
= bump stop

time [s]

test

travel [mm]

in reality KickBack occurs in depressions (cuvette),

when bump stop is active
specific velocity
too fast energy in damper not in bump stop
specific depth
too shallow energy in spring not in bump stop

flat spot

time [s]

simulation

Simulations of several sculptured cuvettes show promising flat spots in wheel travel,
but car jumps too high, too long and too soon.
Reason is, that the real bump stop has both, elastic and damping properties ( FBS,test = f(z, ) )
it absorbs energy.
The bump stop in the simulation is only stiffness (FBS,sim = f(z) ) and stores energy.
Bump stop characteristics are very important, but they are unfortunately not known.
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

15

summary and conclusion

the pilot project vertical vehicle dynamics with MotionSolve is based on a simplified scenario:
simple car (no bushings ...)
very simple tire model
only vertical dynamics
very few real data available
almost no experience
with these premises all targets are met:
model setup within HyperWorks (mainly MotionView, a bit HyperMesh)
user-friendly data input with forms
fast and stable simulations with MotionSolve
close match of test and simulation data
better understanding of effect of payload on KickBack (not shown)
very successful project !
next steps:
integration of a more sophisticated tire model (partner product FTire?)
transverse dynamics (tire, driver, power train, bump stop)
flex bodies (all parts are available as FE-models [Optistruct])
04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,
Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

16

End

thank you for your attention.

04.11.2009; Dirk Bordiehn,

Katja Fritzsch

vertical dynamics of an offroad race car (MotionSolve)

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