Applied Vehicle Dynamics
Seminar
This seminar is one of the most intense experiences you’ll ever have in a classroom setting.
Past attendees tell us this seminar is one of the most intense experiences they’ve ever had in a classroom setting. It’s four days long, and pushes you to go beyond experience and intuition and makes you ask “why,” “how,” and “how much” certain factors affect vehicle performance.
You’ll interact with other attendees, watch live demonstrations, and ask questions to get feedback. By the end, you’ll have learned about every aspect of vehicle dynamics, plus data acquisition and analysis.
This seminar is internationally recognized as one of the best sources of knowledge in vehicle dynamics for engineers. You learn the skills and knowledge you’ll need to succeed in your projects. From designing a new car concept or exploiting an existing design, you’ll learn applied vehicle dynamics for car design, simulation, manufacturing, preparation, testing, and development.
Tires
Because tires are the only elements of your racecar in contact with the ground, it’s vital to understand why and how much the grip, balance, and performance of a car are decided by the contact patch forces and deflections. We’ll also cover tire testing, analysis, and how to use tire data in racecar design and setup.
Aerodynamics
After a review of aerodynamics basics, you’ll learn about aero-maps, wings, gurney flaps, static, and dynamic ride height settings, plus how to integrate them into suspension design.
Kinematics
Here you’ll see why poorly designed kinematics can’t be “patched” by springs, anti-roll bars, and shocks; and why (from the design to on-track testing and racing) understanding the effects of kinematics is essential to the efficient use of race tires. You’ll also learn the differences between kinematic and force roll centers as well as kinematic and force pitch centers.
Steady State Weight Transfer
This is where you’ll get a step-by-step lesson in the weight transfer calculation in steady state. And you’ll see the influence of springs and anti-roll bars on weight transfer distribution as well as the influence of tire vertical stiffness and chassis torsional stiffness. This section also includes a guided exercise on weight transfer calculations under combined lateral and longitudinal accelerations.
Shocks, Ride & Transient Weight Transfers
After a brief description of damper technology, you’ll focus on the damper settings’ influence on tire load, tire load consistency, and racecar performance. A guided exercise on spring and damping calculations, as well as selection and fine-tuning of these suspension elements, will help you save time in testing and improve your understanding of simple simulation tools.
Data Acquisition
You’ll get both technical and practical aspects of data acquisition to analyze, compare and improve car and driver performance. We will examine together and advice you in choice, installation, calibration of sensors and train you in efficient data analysis. We’ll focus on mathematical data analysis and how it’s applied to driver performance, car and tire performance, and performance consistency. All of this will help you appreciate the challenges and opportunities that go along with acquiring and analyzing data.
Car Design, Tuning Modification & Chassis Setup
This seminar has given both young and experienced automotive engineers new ideas, new engineering principles, and new perspectives on car design and testing. You’ll get loads of practical information and perspectives on in-shop and on-track car setup. What’s more, our “tips and tricks” focus on engineering, and offer practical application of vehicle dynamics knowledge.
For more information, download the seminar description here.
Register for upcoming seminars.