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The present paper shows some of the results obtained for service simulation and structural analysis of a small size vehicle with tubular structure. The results are presented after the successful use of the presented methodology in a practical case. All simulations in time domain were carried out by computer programs, which used terrain profiles compatible to the purpose of the vehicle. The dynamic loads obtained were applied to finite element models, allowing the evaluation of nominal stress concentration factors, necessary for reability evaluation. The proposed methodology showed to be quite effective, allow the evaluation of security factors in critical points and can be easily extended to general automotive structural elements.

This work presents a methodology to take into account the effect of tire lifting in the numerical simulation of a commercial vehicle b-train. Firt, the basic equations of the vertical dynamics are showed, followed by the modifications suggested to be included into an existing numerical model of the vehicle (which does not consider the effect). Then, the use of the contact function of commercial software is explained for the tire lifting situation. A study is carried out for the simplified problem of a single wheel running on idealized surfaces. Once the correctness of the approach was asserted, the road obstacle benchmark was used to compare the results of both approaches in a full vehicle numerical simulation. The numerical results obtained with the inclusion of the tire/road separation agreed favorably to the available experimental results, what was demonstrated with graphical comparisons.