Abstract: The durability of automotive products is an important factor to affect their competitiveness; meanwhile, due to their long development cycle and huge costs, the durability control in their conceptual design stage is in great need. Virtual proving ground to predict the durability has been used to performance of a passenger car suspension. A simulation model of flexible virtual proving ground(VPG) for a passenger car has been created, with a variety of durability enhancement roads in the Nong’an Proving Ground as inputs. A string of key technological problems(tire model, stiffness of bushing and roads model) regarding VPG applications has been solved. In addition, the time-history dynamic stress response of a car suspension system has been analyzed, and compared it with the real passenger car durability test results obtained under the same conditions. The results of the simulation and the test are basically identical in terms of the trend of time and frequency domains. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the flexible VPG technology for the simulated suspension system’s dynamic stress response has been demonstrated, and the effective prediction for the suspension system durability in the development process has been realized.

Key words: Durability, Enhancement test, Passenger car suspension, Virtual proving ground(VPG), entrainment effect, leakage vortex, mixed flow pump, tip clearance, low specific speed