Tim Hunter, Ph.D., P.E.

President, Wolf Star Technologies, LLC

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SUMMARY

 

When modelling automotive applications, the need to understand real world loading is imperative for proper simulations. Traditional approaches may use company standards or even MBD simulations. However, these approaches are at best approximations of the actual load conditions. If using an approximation of loading in a simulation, the results are only as accurate as the approximation. Companies often use experimental load transducers to measure real world loading. There are two major disadvantages with this approach. The first is that the load transducers often cannot measure all desired load inputs for a simulation. The second disadvantage is that the application of the load transducer forces physical modifications of the subject components. The measured loads may not be the actual loads because of the mass and stiffness changes to the subject components. Experimental Load Reconstruction is a non-invasive solution to this problem. The commercial True-Load® Load Reconstruction software will be demonstrated in this application. The unmodified trailer hitch is used in this application with only uniaxial strain gauges applied to the trailer hitch.