Computer Synthesis of Light Truck Ride Using a PC Based Simulation Program

An easy-to-use computer program for ride analysis was recently developed. The result of this effort—RideSim—predicts time history responses, power spectral density (PSD) functions, and a driver oriented measure of ride comfort. RideSim employs a graphical user interface (called SGUI, for simulation graphical user interface) to control data preparation, simulation execution, animation, and data analysis. The SGUI allows the user to operate the program by pointing and clicking with a mouse, rather than by using cumbersome text commands. It also manages the vehicle dynamics parameters, the resulting simulation output, and results of post-processing analyses (i.e., PSD analysis). The vehicle dynamics model was generated with the AUTOSIM multibody dynamics program. This program uses Kane's Method and computer algebra to create a parametric dynamics simulation that can be easily linked to the SGUI. The dynamics model is tailored to a specific application and constructed with a minimal set of parameters. All these features enable RideSim to execute very quickly and to be effectively used by a ride engineers who are not necessarily experts in simulation technology. This paper describes the SGUI, the vehicle dynamics model, the experimental procedure, and a critical look at how well the model agrees with experiment.