By Anirban Ghosh
The following are the edited excerpts from the presentation.
The commercial vehicles industry players face big challenges because the vehicles are their earning machines. The owners have to control all the factors of the cost linked with the vehicles like finance, fuel, tyres, payload, uptime, the availability of the vehicles, compliance with the changing regulations etc. Virtual product development is the key to meeting these and other challenges of the CV industry. The use of virtual engineering is not only for internal combustion engine vehicles but also for electric mobility which is going to be the future of the industry.
Fuel is the highest cost factor unlike in many other countries. Compared to 38% in India it is only 10% in Europe. For the BS-VI fuel compliance, virtual product development was the key that came to our help. It ensured that within a small window of development time, we could ensure BS-VI compliance of the new vehicles of VECV. With support from the Volvo group, we introduced several new variants in the market.
Benefits of virtual product development
The benefits of virtual product development include a robust design concept before investing in physical concept, early verification of vehicle performance, reduced number of prototypes resulting in fewer costs and time to market. The time to market can be reduced by 30% by following virtual simulation and testing processes.
For the internal combustion engine vehicles, petrol, CNG or diesel, virtual product development help in fuel efficiency (engine and driveline analysis), emissions (EATS optimization), durability analysis of vehicle systems and powertrain, drive productivity (ride control, handling, NVH analysis), crash and safety analysis and payload optimisation.
For fuel efficiency at VECV, the complete vehicle has been modelled on the simulation including driving cycle, environment, vehicle model aggregating with engine model, aerodynamic of the tyres and so on. With virtual engineering, we have been able to establish a correlation of up to 96% between the virtual validation of fuel efficiency and the actual fuel efficiency. Today, VECV offers products that have 4%-10% better fuel efficiency than the competition.
On the emission side also, there is virtual engineering technique, virtual EATS, what area to target, what is the engine sweet spot for higher efficiency and lower emissions and the areas that need to be targeted and all of this is accomplished on the virtual testbed.
With virtual engineering, we have been able to establish a correlation of up to 96% between the virtual validation of fuel efficiency and the actual fuel efficiency. Today, VECV offers products that have 4%-10% better fuel efficiency than the competition.Rajinder Singh Sachdeva, COO and head, R&D, VECV
Similarly, the real driving emission cycles are becoming very important. In-service compliance, which is coming from BS-VI, ageing conditions of the vehicle are now important parameters along which a vehicle quality is measured. And here we have created extended verification metrics of different variants, aged calibration that is done on the virtual testbed, limited validation of worst-case combinations are done and after that, we do actual physical testing. Here we can see that 80% of our efforts are put in stage one, which is our calibration, 60% in aged calibration, 50% in limited validations and only 40% effort will be put into an actual physical accumulation of mileage to ensure in-service compliance. So this is a huge reduction in time, effort and cost, which ensures that across the variants there is in-service compliance as per the BS-VI norms.
Model-based verification on a virtual testbed is done on the vehicles. Different parameters are modelled like vehicle calibration, environment, driving cycle, EATS aging, NOX emissions and SCR temp to make sure that the vehicle is wholly BS-VI compliant.
Similarly for the engine, durability and performance are also measured through the various simulation techniques so that promised vehicle life is established. Even the transmission durability, stability and performance are modelled on the simulator and tested.
Road profiles of various Indian roads are fed in the simulation and the vehicles are tested for durability, the damage is taken, chasis life, cabin life etc. All of this can be accomplished without any real testing of the vehicle. We can also ensure maximum driver comfort using the virtual simulation so that the driver can be on the road for maximum hours.
The Indian vehicle industry is moving rapidly and today almost 70% of the complete vehicle development can be done virtually. Going forward this will increase to 80%-85% of vehicle development.Rajinder Singh Sachdeva, COO and head, R&D, VECV
Vehicle handling, noise and vibration reduction, steering, tyre life improvement are all simulated virtually and these inputs go towards making the vehicles safer, comfortable and lasting longer. More the number of kms a vehicle is run, the more profit the owner earns. Even the safety regulations like crash tests can be simulated in a virtual environment.
A lot of weight reduction has been possible using the virtual development process. Unwanted weight has been reduced so that payload carrying capacity is increased.
Electric vehicle development
For electric vehicles (EVs) virtual product development has helped in simulating parts from electric motors to battery cooling circuits. Motor cooling airflow pattern and internal battery cell temperature variation have also been simulated. A complete electric vehicle can be modelled where the control system, battery management system, electric vehicle performance, vehicle range, and range variance with temperature are analysed virtually in the lab and this ensures that the vehicles stand up to customer requirements.
Future challenges
While almost everything can now be simulated from engine efficiency to driver safety, there are many challenges the CV industry has to face. Regulations and norms are changing rapidly and compliances have been increased. Market dynamics also are rapidly changing. Vehicles have to be ready for BS-VI step-II to be implemented in 2023, shift to electric mobility, connected vehicles or IoT- enabled vehicles, autonomous truck or self-driving truck development, FCEV vehicles and other challenges have to be met by the CV industry.
In order to meet all these challenges, virtual product development is an investment that the CV industry can benefit a lot from. The Indian vehicle industry is moving rapidly and today almost 70% of the complete vehicle development can be done virtually. Going forward this will increase to 80%-85% of vehicle development.
With this technology, all customer requirements can be brought to the laboratory and then without spending much time on the prototype and the investment, the requirements can be simulated to ensure that the uptime, fuel efficiency and load capacity of the vehicle are maximum so that profits the owner earns from the vehicle is maximum. That is the only way to reduce logistical costs which is 12.5%-13% of the GDP. Product has to be more productive.
