Smooth the Road of Simulation

While vehicle manufacturers cannot smooth the roads their products run on, they work very hard to mitigate the effects of a bumpy road.  I came across this article from coverage of last month’s SAE 2010 World Congress.  It describes how MTS Systems Corp. and TVS Motor Co. are successfully working together on virtual two-poster tests for motorcycles with Adams.  Just like four-wheeled automakers, TVS finds value in such virtual tests since they can be done much earlier in the design cycle when design changes are far less costly.

One thing that caught my attention was the common lament about the difficulty of isolator modeling.  To quote the article: “One of the most difficult tasks in virtual testing is to model elastomer isolators such as bushings and rubber mounts accurately. Elastomer isolators usually have nonlinear load deflection relationship. The relationship is also frequency dependent.”

What we at MSC have found is that the difficulty lies as much, if not more, in model parameter definition as it does in the actual isolator component modeling methodology.  To that end, the recent Adams 2010 release includes not only improvements in modeling methodology of isolators, but an isolator parameter identification tool (IPIT) as well.  The IPIT simplifies and accelerates the process of deriving model parameters from isolator measurement data.  So, isolators with nonlinear and frequency-dependant properties can be more easily and accurately represented.  Check out the Adams 2010 release information for more on the isolator improvements.  They are covered in a new capabilities video and in the Adams 2010 product brief.  Just one example of the how the road to great simulation can be smoothed.

May 3rd, 2010 | Tags: adams, four-post, isolator, isolator parameter identification tool, motorcycle, MSC Software, multibody dynamics, simulation, two-post | Category: Auto, CAE, Industries