Full-Vehicle Analysis: Step Steer

Full-Vehicle Assembly

Select the Full-Vehicle Assembly you want to analyze. The menu lists all full-vehicle assemblies currently open in your session.

Assembly Variant

Select the assembly variant you want to analyze. The menu lists all full-vehicle assembly variants of the chosen assembly.

Switches to the selected variant and adds the required testrig as needed.

Output Prefix

Enter a string that specifies the Analysis Output Name. The string can contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores (_). Adams Car appends the suffix _step to form the complete analysis name. For example, if you enter test_45 as the output prefix, the analysis name becomes test_45_step.

Solver Settings File

Select one or more files (extension .ssf) defining the solver settings to be temporarily applied for this simulation (optional).

Opens the Solver Settings File (extension .ssf) editor dialog box.

End Time

Specify the time, in seconds, at which the analysis ends.

Number of Steps / Step Size / Step Frequency

Select either of the following:

Simulation Mode

Select interactive, background, graphical, files or event only.

See Mode of Simulation: Interactive, Mode of Simulation: Graphical, Mode of Simulation: Background, Mode of Simulation: Files_only, Mode of Simulation: Event_only.

Enter the name of a file that contains road data information. The tire subsystems use this information to calculate the tire/road interaction forces.

Tips on Entering File Names in Text Boxes.

Import and visualize road graphics from file.

Remove road or path graphics.

View road / path file in info window.

Edit road / path file in road builder or text editor.

Initial Velocity

Enter the initial speed of the vehicle in the units specified in the pull-down menu to the right of the Initial Velocity text box.

Gear Position

Specify the initial transmission gear for the analysis. The powertrain subsystem uses this parameter that generally acts as a gain for the throttle-demand output from the cruise control. The gear remains constant for the entire maneuver, regardless of the selection for the Cruise Control.

Adams Car stores the gear ratios in the powertrain subsystem.

Suggested Gear Position based on desired Initial Velocity (or equivalent lateral acceleration and curvature radius for constant radius cornering events). The button suggests the gear position for the event in order for the engine speed to be in the range between stall speed and max revolution limit.

Turn Direction

Select a right or a left turn.

Steering Control Mode

Allow you to define the steering wheel angle for the end of the next mini maneuver

Select one of the following:

Learn about Specifying a Control Mode.

Method

Select a method to apply step input to the vehicle.

Three methods are available:

If you set Method to Default, Adams Car displays the following option:

Final Steer Value

Enter a positive final steer value for the steering input. Maximum steer occurs at time start_value + duration.

Step Start Time

Enter a real value that specifies the time at which the maneuver is to start.

Duration of Step

Specify the time duration over which the steering input changes from the initial value to the final value.

Steering Input

Select one of the following:

Steering Release

Allow you to define the steering wheel release. If you select Yes Release time option will be enabled.

Release Time

If you set Method to Lateral Acceleration, Adams Car displays the following option:

Lateral Acceleration(Gs)

Enter the target lateral acceleration. Adams Car calculates the steering wheel angle accordingly.

If you set Method to Spline, Adams Car displays the following option:

Driver Data File

Select a driver data file (.dcd) that defines an open-loop steering input. Learn about Working with Driver Control Data Files (.dcd).

Cruise Control

Select if you want Adams Car to try to maintain the specified Initial Velocity throughout the analysis, using the longitudinal controller inside the Driving Machine. Learn about Using the Driving Machine.

To use this controller, your assembly must contain a powertrain subsystem.

Quasi-Static Straight-Line Setup

Select to perform a quasi-static prephase analysis before running the transient analysis on your full-vehicle assemblies.

If you do not select this option, Adams Car performs a SETTLE analysis.

For more information about the different quasi-static setup method keywords (such as SETTLE and STRAIGHT), see Structure of Event Files.

Create Event Log File

Select if you want Adams Car to write information about the assembled model and analysis to an Analysis Log File.

Add Vehicle Dynamics Requests

Activates requests computing certain vehicle dynamics outputs during the full vehicle event.

Some of these additional requests are required for standard post-processing (reports and plots).

Compute Characteristic Values

Activates requests computing suspension and steering characteristics during the full vehicle event.

The additional requests are equivalent to those previously already available for suspension analysis.

See Output of Suspension Analyses in Adams Car - Running Analysis for more details.

Select to display a dialog box where you can add multi-line comments to any entity, to describe its purpose and function. Adams Car displays different comments dialog boxes, depending on the entity type for which you want to record comments:

Learn about Recording Comments.

Select to display an Alignment dialog box where you can set toe, camber and caster alignment values.