MGA Research Corporation, is a technical leader in the area of simulation and durability testing. The MGA team is comprised of dedicated and experienced individuals with extensive expertise in Simulation Testing and Vibration Durability.
MGA Simulation Laboratory
The Simulation and Durability Test Laboratory is a division of MGA Research Corporation. MGA is an A2LA accredited leading-edge company which provides independent testing services, equipment, and fixtures to the automotive, military, aerospace and agricultural industries. The Simulation and Durability laboratory is part of MGA’s wide range of specialized test laboratories located in Troy, Michigan, near most major OEM’s and the automotive supplier base. The laboratory offers a wide range of services including test consultation, data analysis, fixture design and fabrication, data collection, Multi-Axis Simulation Table (MAST) testing, full vehicle shaker testing, block load cycle testing, and real-time multi-channel simulation testing. The staff at MGA is well versed in various industry accepted test specifications, protocols and standards. First-class professional service and quick turn-around on testing and reports are hallmarks of MGA’s Simulation and Durability Lab.
Simulation Testing
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Most Americans spend a good portion of their day in their vehicle. Whether you’re commuting to and from work, enjoying a ride on a scenic road, or delivering a pizza; you probably don’t pay close attention to your vehicle’s seats. Automotive seating has come a long way. Seats in a car are no longer a bench you sit on. They are a more sophisticated safety and comfort device.
While most people notice how comfortable their seat feels, they don’t realize all of the design and testing that goes into making their seats not only comfortable but also safe. While a lot of the seat features are luxury items, many are safety related. Active head restraints, side airbags, lower anchorage, and tethers for child car seats, to name a few, are all examples of items that many people do not look for when purchasing a vehicle. These items not only provide safety but the also add weight and complexity to the seat. This extra weight and complexity creates obstacles when it comes to testing.
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During the Tour De France this year, you may have seen several commercials showing a certain rider trailing behind team vehicle after team vehicle with tailpipe after tailpipe leading the way. While the message of this spot predicts a future with electric vehicles and no tailpipes, we know here in the testing industry that the exhaust system isn’t going anywhere soon. It will only become more and more complex as it adapts to new requirements and technologies. It is more than just a tailpipe; in fact, it is a complicated component that must perform a very important job while retaining its durability in the worst conditions. The exhaust system is one of the most abused pieces of equipment on the vehicle. It is repeatedly exposed to extreme hot and cold, splashed with water and salt, vibrated, and exposed to the unpredictable obstacles and debris of the road.
Stricter emissions regulations have caused designers to come up with lighter designs that have additional components such as urea pumps and afterburners. Different catalytic materials have been selected to control the effect of exhaust gas on the environment. Some engineers have even experimented with plastics and composites to create innovative new light weight, high strength designs. All of which must pass laboratory testing before they can be released.
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MGA is pleased to announce its participation in the upcoming SAE 2010 World Congress event happening April 13-15, 2010 at the Cobo Center in Detroit, MI. This year, MGA presented a technical paper (listed below) relative to Simulation testing.
“Test Methods for Multi-Axis Simulation Testing per MIL-STD-810G” written and presented by David Nagle; Co-Authors Gerald Roesser, Terry Wilhelm (ArmorWorks); Presentation Date/Time: April 13, 2010 at 1:20 p.m.
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This article will serve as an elementary course for the basics of simulation testing. There will be a discussion on vehicle durability test methods, an overview on the theory of simulation testing, a discussion on data acquisition and analysis, fixture design and drive file development.
For the purposes of this presentation we will be discussing simulation testing as it relates to automotive vehicle durability development with a special emphasis on Multi-Axis Simulation Table or “MAST” testing. However, these same principals can be applied to many types of transportation vehicles that are utilized in a wide range of industries. In today’s automotive industry, the primary goal is to design a vehicle that is both safe and durable. This design goal provides the best in value for customers and helps to build the manufacturers reputation for quality and dependability.
Historically, the durability of a vehicle is assessed in several different ways. The simplest form of testing is to merely drive the vehicle through its normal usage. If a vehicle is driven for 100,000 miles or 6 years, one will very accurately be able to assess its reliability over 100,000 miles. This test driving method, while obviously being the most accurate is not the most efficient. As a consequence, test tracks have been created to simulate these road conditions. A typical proving ground test track will be made up of several types of road surfaces that the vehicle will see in the course of its product life. These surfaces are able to condense the amount of time it takes to expose a vehicle to an equivalent amount of fatigue exposure as it would be exposed to over a period such as 10 years. For example a test track can be designed to have a 40 to 1 ratio where one mile on the track is comparable to 40 miles in real world conditions. This is an effective test method but can only be conducted very late in the design process when an assembled prototype is available. It requires drivers and a large investment in time and labor. Also, road surfaces can be custom tailored to specific vehicles or regions but this process can be time consuming and expensive.
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Shock absorber testing is very important to the racing industry. They have known for years that a well tuned shock can make the difference at the finish line. The better the performance you get out of the shock, the better the driver will be able to handle the vehicle. Other industries that require shock absorbers are also learning how to design better products and how to use advances in technology to their advantage.
Modern shock absorbers typically create a linear curve as the velocity of the shaft increases. This means that as the velocity increases on the shaft, the force required to move the shaft, or the damping, also increases. In many cases it is desirable to have a specific slope or linearity to this curve. In other cases, the designer of the shock may wish to have the damping decrease as the velocity increases. The process of collecting data for these curves is what is known as shock absorber characterization. A designer may have a goal in mind that is either determined by race track data, past performance, or customer specifications.
In order to collect this data, a shock dynamometer is employed. This is a machine that is capable of moving the shaft of the shock absorber at varying velocities and recording the resultant forces. It is important that the velocity be controlled precisely so that an accurate characterization can be made. The designer can then make changes to the shock as needed to find how that will affect the performance.
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We are pleased to announce the release of our FREE iPhone and iPod application. It is called MGA convert and is available for download from iTunes. Click Here to Download
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Over the past few years, MGA has continually expanded the facilities and array of services offered for real-time simulation durability testing. Typically, these facilities include systems and expertise related to Multi-Axis Simulation Tables (MAST), Electro-Dynamic (ED) vibration systems, and multi-channel fatigue capabilities. This fall, MGA has made its largest expansion yet into this area of testing technology. This expansion is part of a multi-year plan to convert the Elliott campus of buildings, purchased in 2005, to specialized test laboratories serving the needs of the automotive industry.
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For over 50 years, Mercedes-Benz has exposed its vehicles to a vigorous test track known as Heide-dauerlauf*. Located in Germany, this route provided Mercedes with a means of testing the life of a vehicle and its components in an accelerated manner*. In the modern era, Mercedes has re-created the conditions of this track at their facilities in Stuttgart and Sindelfingen*. Each vehicle is instrumented with accelerometers, and a courageous driver endures the vibrations of the test track at a regulated speed as acceleration is recorded at various locations*. This acceleration data is then delivered to the test lab where specialized software and equipment is used to reproduce the same vibrations.
MGA has performed Heide-dauerlauf or “Heide” testing on various seat programs for 6 years for various automotive suppliers. Currently, MGA-MI is capable of performing this vibration test on eight different test rigs. Each rig, known as a Multi-Axis Simulation Table (MAST), is capable of reproducing the six degree-of-freedom vibrations seen on the Heide track. The MGA facility in Troy, MI uses MTS FlexTest™ IIm and IIs software to operate each of the MAST systems. RPC Pro™ (MTS) is used to match the road load data provided by the customer.
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In recent history, a major concern for military vehicle seating suppliers has been the seat’s performance in the event of a mine blast. Many of our soldiers have been severely injured or killed in this scenario, and military design engineers are working to prevent these tragedies by equipping their vehicles with seats capable of preventing spinal or brain injury under these attacks. MGA Research has worked with many different military seat suppliers in testing for seat safety during mine blast simulation using our drop tower. This testing has helped our military customers develop energy absorption (EA) technology which is currently being used in the field. This testing is very useful, but we think vibration testing would prove to be equally as important. Vibration testing could prove to be a useful method of determining the structural integrity of the energy absorption mechanisms when exposed to stress in directions other than vertical. Our drop tower tests were conducted on new production seats, which raises an interesting question: would the seats perform nearly as well after the combat vehicle has been exposed to the rough terrain conditions seen in Afghanistan or Iraq?
Following a series of mine blast simulation tests, MGA developed an experimental vibration test for an un-tested military seat. This test was developed from a generic 6-axis rough road simulation profile. The military seat was secured to the surface of the Multi-Axis Simulation Table (MAST) which is a rig powered by six hydraulic actuators that is used to match 6-Degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) acceleration data. The seat was occupied with a dummy representative of a soldier equipped with their gear, and this dummy was secured to the seat. Throughout the duration of the test, we observed several occurrences of structural issues. We consulted the mine blast simulation engineers and discovered that we produced similar failures, as well as some new failures.
Vibration durability test setup on a 6-DOF MAST system
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