Framework for Vehicle Dynamics Model Validation

Vehicle dynamics models are widely used in many areas of the automotive industry. The usability of each model depends on how well it is able to mimic the behavior of the real vehicle. Each simulation model must go through a thorough investigation process first, which is called model validation. Although, vehicle dynamics simulation models and methodology for computational model validation are well established fields, to the best of the authors’ knowledge a general framework for vehicle dynamics model validation is still lacking. The research aims to develop a comprehensive methodological framework for vehicle dynamics model validation. In this paper the aim is to present the high level layout of the proposed framework, introducing the main blocks and the tasks related, also addressing some critical issues regarding vehicle dynamics model validation such as validation metrics and vehicle parameter measurement and estimation. An important part of the proposed methodology is a sophisticated vehicle dynamics measurement system, which gives the opportunity to estimate a bunch of vehicle parameters during dynamic testing, which can be useful for several reasons, e.g. fine-tuning the parameters of the Pacejka Magic formula. As a case study some vehicle dynamics test based parameter estimations are shown to justify the raison d’ê and investigate possible applications.