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The automotive industry is heading in the direction of signing off exhaust system durability based on rig simulation tests rather than running physical vehicles on the proving ground. This is due to the cost, time, and availability of prototype, pre-production vehicles, and the durability track itself. To this end, several types of test rigs for exhaust systems have been developed, such as single table rig and dual table rig. New methods are also being developed in exhaust rig simulation that significantly reduce development time and program risk. The exhaust test rig has been implemented physically, however, the rig simulation procedures and methods have not yet been investigated thoroughly. There are many issues that can and do influence simulation quality, such as selection of control, iteration channel preparation, and control channel optimization.

Component bench fatigue testing is a cost-effective way to evaluate the durability of exhaust catalytic converters. A successful bench fatigue test depends on the development of a test specification. The test specification should represent the actual customer duty cycle that the component is exposed to. Based on the concept of equivalent fatigue damage, a systematic approach is presented to obtain the test specification from the acquired road load data. A method based on damage analysis is proposed to determine the effective notch factor, and an empirical relationship is presented to account for the thermal effect on the test specification. The principles and procedures of multiple block testing and constant amplitude testing are also presented.