Road Surface Profile Synthesis: Assessment of Suitability for Simulation

Abstract

Vibration analysis plays an essential role to enhance the design of the vehicle, related to its comfort and safety level. It is useful to determine the relations between the road profile or its characteristics to the particular properties of vehicles and evaluate the dynamic response to the applied road profile. During the design stage, the simulation of vehicle suspension requires an input of road surface for the initial dynamic load. Therefore, an artificial road profile, created according to a specific methodology, is a key to overall research success. It is possible to generate an artificial road profile using several mathematical methods. This paper is dedicated to analyzing and comparing the usability and ISO-compatibility of three methods: White noise filtration, sinusoidal approximation, and moving average of white noise. Furthermore, we modified the sinusoidal approximation, additionally using a windowing function, thus removing sharp jumps in a generated road profile. Each analyzed method has its advantages and disadvantages, therefore, proper choice in profile generation was a goal of the provided analysis. We defined that the moving average of white noise filtration method has the highest implementation perspectives due to the best compliance to the desired ISO-defined road profile shape and independence from simulation velocity.