Search Results

There has always been a challenge to reduce product development time and costs due to physical prototyping. This technical paper details a novel approach used to develop aspects of the ride comfort performance for a luxury cabriolet vehicle. The approach makes use of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) techniques to predict the ride comfort performance differences due to a change in specification and then uses a physical reproduction technique so that the customer can assess the effect of those specification changes. Specifically, the vehicle is created in CAE using all of the dynamic characteristics that influence the ride comfort performance such as mounting characteristics, rigid body mechanical properties and, particularly important in the case of the Cabriolet car, body structural performance. Specification change filters are then created in simulation that helps assessment of the effects on performance.