Modelling environment for holistic vehicle simulation

As the complexity of road vehicles increases with time, the importance of CAE tools to the product development cycle increases as well. A holistic vehicle simulation capability is necessary for front-loading component, subsystem, and controller design, for the early detection of component and subsystem design flaws, as well as for the model-based calibration of powertrain control modules. The current document explores the concept of holistic vehicle simulation by means of developing and testing a Simulink-based multidisciplinary modelling environment (MME), modular in nature and capable of connecting to subsystem models developed in different environments, thus supporting holistic vehicle simulation on a company-wide scale. The developed environment is tested via the integration of subsystem models built in different commercial software packages within the environment. The simulation results generated from equivalent vehicle models developed in three competing platforms are compared and the advantages and limitations of the different methods of model integration to the master holistic vehicle simulation are discussed.