Methodological approaches for the development of a test facility to represent system dynamic aspects in automotive engineering

In the future, the development of motor vehicles will be shaped more than in the past by new and more stringent requirements from legislators and customers. In the course of this eventuality, the main focus is quality and product safety. Furthermore, shorter development cycles, increasing modularization, increasing number of derivatives, and simultaneously increasing system complexity will additionally complicate the development process. From these findings stems the desire for cost-benefit optimized development processes that require less prototypes, have high-performance simulation methods, and thereby allow a clear risk management. This requires a careful selection of test methods and test facilities. In the present paper some first general requirements and constraints are determined for automotive engineering development areas influenced by system dynamics. This is specifically dis-cussed in the development areas of driving dynamics, ride comfort, and durability. Finally, specific requirements for simulative and experimental methods are derived and individual solutions developed. In the ensuing synthesis these requirements are compared with each other, evaluated, and set in relation with other constraints of building, location, and process specifications, so that new test facility and simulation concepts for components, assemblies, and a total vehicle testing can be derived. The resulting 12 test rig concepts are then aggregated in a further development stage through constructed space studies, connecting and operating concepts in a layout for a vehicle technical test center. A method of creating an interface between the building and test facility is presented. The paper provides further insight into the design and planning process of the Vehicle Test Center, discusses the vibration control separation at high spatial proximity of the test rigs, and pro-vides the thus created opportunities for research activities on system dynamic aspects in the motor vehicle. Finally, excerpts for results of the planning process will be presented.