Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) News
Printer Friendly VersionComputer simulation toolkit helps build a new generation of vehicles
System allows cost-effective development of vehicle concepts
San Antonio -- February 24, 1997 -- A new computer software toolkit is helping engineering teams evaluate advanced vehicle configurations in a personal computer environment instead of building and testing components in the laboratory. Engineers and scientists at Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) developed a major part of the toolkit that evaluates automobile component requirements within the context of a vehicle.
Through the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV), a cooperative research and development program between the U.S. government and the United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), engineers will use the PNGV Systems Analysis Toolkit to assess which vehicle concepts can be cost-effectively built and tested to meet performance, emissions, and fuel economy goals. USCAR is a consortium of the Ford Motor Company, General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation. The PNGV was formed under a mandate from President Clinton in 1993 to develop a vehicle that achieves up to three times the fuel efficiency of today's vehicles.
"The toolkit provides a user-friendly interface that automates the process of selecting a vehicle configuration, sizing components, executing performance and non-performance analyses, visualizing results, and producing written reports," Scott McBroom, a senior research engineer at SwRI, said.
Engineers in SwRI's Engine and Vehicle Research Division have designed the Advanced Powertrain Assessment Comparison and Evaluation (APACE®) simulation tool, a part of the toolkit. Currently, APACE® is beginning validation tests to establish benchmark performance models that achieve results comparable to evaluations reached by research teams at Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler and Department of Energy national laboratories, McBroom said.
SwRI's work was performed under a subcontract from The Analytic
Sciences Corporation (TASC) in Madison Heights, Mich. TASC developed the cost,
reliability, and graphical user interface portions of the PNGV Toolkit.
For more information about SwRI's APACE™ program, contact Deborah Deffenbaugh, Communications Department, Southwest Research Institute, P.O. Drawer 28510, San Antonio, Texas 78228-0510, Phone (210) 522-2046, Fax (210) 522-3547.
