Technical Paper
A Multi-Level Approach for the Validation of a Tractor-Semitrailer Ride and Handling Model
2004-10-26
2004-01-2694
The accurate prediction of commercial-vehicle ride and handling performance with computer simulation tools is dependent on the level of correlation between the computer model and experimental data. Correlating vehicle attributes to physical test data is often challenging due to the large number of degrees of freedom - and, correspondingly, the large number of tunable parameters - typically required to accurately model vehicle behavior. A high level of interaction between input parameters and vehicle attributes further complicates the task. As a result, this type of correlation is a multi-objective optimization exercise in which the judicious planning of supporting test activity is critical to achieving the right level of model accuracy with an acceptable amount of resource investment. This paper discusses the methodology implemented in the validation of a tractor-semitrailer ADAMS model for both ride and handling simulations and presents the results obtained.