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New trend in steering system such as EPS is coming up, but still hydraulic power steering system is more prevalent in today’s vehicles. Power steering pump is a vital component of hydraulic power steering system. Failure of steering pump can lead to loss of power assistance. Prediction of hub load on pump shaft is an important design input for pump manufacturer. Higher hub loads than the actual designed load of pump bearing may lead to seizure of pump. Pump manufacturer has safe limits for hub load. Simulations can assist for optimization of belt layout and placement of accessories to reduce the hub load. Lower hub load can have direct effect on improvement of pump durability. This paper deals with dynamic simulation of belt drive system in MSC.ADAMS as well as vehicle level measurement of hub load on power steering pump.

Structural elastomer components like bushes, engine mounts are required to meet stringent and contrasting requirements of being soft for better NVH and also be durable at different loading conditions and different road conditions. Silent block bushes are such components where the loading in radial direction of bushes are high to ensure the durability of bushes at high loads, but has to be soft on torsion to ensure good NVH. These requirements present with unique challenge to optimize the leaf spring bush design, stiffness and material characteristics of the rubber. Traditionally, bushes with varying degree of stiffness are selected, manufactured and tested on vehicle and the best one is chosen depending on the requirements. However, this approach is costly, time consuming and iterative. In this study, the stiffness targets required for the bush were analysed using static and dynamic load cases using virtual simulation (MSC.ADAMS).

Fatigue life estimation of automotive components is a critical requirement for product design and development. Automotive companies are under tremendous pressure to launch new vehicles within short duration because of customer’s changing preferences. There is a necessity to have a comprehensive virtual simulation and robust validation process to evaluate durability of vehicle as per customer usage. Test track and field test are two of the most time-consuming activities, so there is a need of simulation process to substitute these requirements. This paper summarizes the overall process of Accelerated Durability Test with measured road loads. Based on category of vehicle, type road profiles and the customer usage pattern, the wheel forces, strains and acceleration are measured which is used to derive the equivalent duty cycles on proving ground. The wheel force transducers (WFT) are used to derive loads for fatigue life estimation.