Measurement and fatigue damage evaluation of road profiles

In this paper, the simulation of customer operation by means of the 3D (Driver, Driven vehicle, Driving environs) method is used to evaluate stochastic and transient road profiles with regard to the fatigue damage influence to chassis components. For this purpose road profile statistics are derived from extensive measurements on public roads. A special road profile measurement system was developed for getting information about road profile statistics in customer operation. Measurements were done in three different markets. The 3D method and multibody dynamics simulation are used to evaluate and compare the fatigue damage influence of road profiles in different markets.