Driving 1.2 Million Kilometers in Eight Weeks

Abstract

Executing extensive field tests to validate the durability performance of a vehicle is very expensive and time-consuming. This pressures OEMs to develop compressed testing cycles and to efficiently reproduce equivalent laboratory tests. In addition, durability engineers have to gain a precise understanding of the loads that the vehicle will undergo during its lifetime to guarantee valid fatigue performance testing. Ford Otosan and LMS engineers developed a compressed durability testing cycle for Ford Otosan's new Cargo truck. LMS engineers performed dedicated data collection, applied extensive load data processing techniques and developed a 6 to 8-week test track sequence and 4-week accelerated rig test scenario that matched the fatigue damage generated by 1.2 million kilometers of road driving.