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Hybrid vehicle simulation methods combine physical test articles (vehicles, suspensions, etc.) with complementary virtual vehicle components and virtual road and driver inputs to simulate the actual vehicle operating environment. Using appropriate components, hybrid simulation offers the possibility to develop more accurate physical tests earlier, and at lower cost, than possible with conventional test methods. MTS Systems has developed Hybrid System Response Convergence (HSRC), a hybrid simulation method that can utilize existing durability test systems and detailed non-real-time virtual component models to create an accurate full-vehicle simulation test without requiring road load data acquisition. MTS Systems and Audi AG have recently completed a joint evaluation project for the HSRC hybrid simulation method using an MTS 329 road simulator at the Audi facility in Ingolstadt, Germany.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is state of the art in the aerodynamic development process of vehicles nowadays. With increasing computer power the numerical simulations including meshing and turbulence modeling are capturing the complex geometry of vehicles and the flow field behavior around and behind a bluff body in more detail. The ultimate goal for realistic automotive simulations is to model the under-hood as well. In this study vehicle simulations using the finite volume open source CFD program OpenFOAM® are validated with own experiments on a modified generic quarter-scale SAE body with under-hood flow. A model radiator was included to take account of the pressure drop in the under-hood compartment. Force and pressure measurements around the car, total-pressure and hot-wire measurements in the car flow field and surface flow patterns were simulated and compared with the experiment.

In recent years, driving simulators have become a valuable tool in the automotive design and testing process. Yet, in the field of vehicle dynamics, most decisions are still based on test drives in real cars. One reason for this situation can be found in the fact that many driving simulators do not allow the driver to evaluate the handling qualities of a simulated vehicle. In a driving simulator, the motion cueing algorithm tries to represent the vehicle motion within the constrained motion envelope of the motion platform. By nature, this process leads to so called false cues where the motion of the platform is not in phase or moving in a different direction with respect to the vehicle motion. In a driving simulator with classical filter-based motion cueing, false cues make it considerably more difficult for the driver to rate vehicle dynamics.