Nonlinear identification of torsional driveshaft vibrations in a full-scale automotive vehicle during acceleration

Torque transfer characteristics of the drivetrain of a continuously variable transmission (CVT) vehicle during acceleration are identified on the basis of a particle swarm optimization (PSO) method. The torque transfer characteristics from the CVT input shaft to the driveshaft are described by a simple nonlinear model: a single degree-of-freedom vibration model with a clearance. Based on the time series obtained from a full-scale experiment, the model parameters are identified by PSO. The simulated driveshaft torque shows good agreement with the experimental time series, and the identification error is reduced by data correction methods. The resulting model extrapolates an unknown region of the time series outside the identified time interval and predicts an additional time series obtained from a separate trial of the experiment.