Proceedings of the IMAC-XXVII

February 9-12, 2009 Orlando, Florida USA

2009 Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc.

Simulation and Experimental Validation of Automotive Components

D. Mariappan - CEO, M. Bhavani Shankar - Project Engineer, A. Pratap - Project Engineer,

TechPassion, 9700 Dee road, # 311, Des plaines, IL 60016, USA, and A.S. Phani University of Bath, 4, East, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, Bath
BA2 7AY, UK
Nomenclature

Viscous damping coefficient

Natural frequency

ABSTRACT
In the automotive industry, experimental modal analysis is used extensively in new vehicle development to design
various components and assemblies for road dynamic loads. Experimentation is essential to bridge the gaps in
simulation. In this paper, we present three automotive components exhibiting increasing level of complexity in
their dynamic response. These automotive components contain some elements that are difficult to model because
of insufficient data available on material properties. The protocol adopted in each case is as follows: 1. Construct
a finite element model of the component to deduce modal parameters, namely, natural frequencies, and mode
shapes; 2. Experimentally determine the modal parameters of the system under test, including realistic natural
frequencies and damping coefficients; 3. Correlate experimental measurement with simulation results. These
simulation and experimental studies are carried out with free-free boundary conditions. Data acquisition for
experiment, modal parameter estimation, post processing and correlation are performed using an in-house
software package.
1 Introduction
Three automotive case studies are presented in this paper to illustrate the utility of Experimental Modal Analysis
in validating and subsequently updating Finite Element models. The cases chosen here are an automotive wheel,
an automotive suspension system and an exhaust pipe model of a car. These structures exhibit increasing
complexity in their material properties and dynamic response characteristics and therefore pose difficulties in
accurately modeling them using finite element simulation.
The wheel example is a component level study of a metallic rim to which refinements are made to its material
properties based on experimental results. The suspension system is a modal study of an assembly of
components having an operational degree of freedom between them. The challenge here is to appropriately
represent the assembly in the FE model and accurately model the degrees of freedom of the individual

components in relation to each other. The third case study of the exhaust pipe model describes a system for
which there is initially insufficient information about its material properties and how modal testing helps in refining
modeling assumptions to match the realistic experimental model more accurately.
The simulation procedure involves the construction of a geometric model of the test specimen, meshing the model
with appropriate mesh elements, selection of material properties and assigning boundary conditions. The solid
models are built in SolidWorks and the meshing and finite element solvers used are FEMAP and
NASTRAN respectively.
The experimental modal tests and analyses are carried out using an in-house vibration measurement and modal
analysis software called VMAPTM (Vibration Measurement and Analysis Package). The test procedure in VMAPTM
comprises of geometry creation and import, data acquisition from impulse hammer and shaker excitations, curve
fitting of measured frequency response functions for modal parameter estimation of natural frequencies, damping,
and amplitudes, post-processing and visualization of mode shapes, and correlation of FE results with test.
2 Car Wheel Modal Analysis
A modal analysis study is performed on a car
wheel freely suspended as shown in figure 1
and having the following dimensions:
Wheel Diameter = 0.365m
Thickness = 0.003m
Rim Width = 0.140m

Figure. 1 Freely suspended automotive wheel

2.1 Finite Element Simulation
The finite element mesh comprises tetrahedral mesh elements and is prescribed the following material properties:
Material: Aluminum
Elastic modulus = 70e9 N/m
Density = 2600 kg/m
Poissons ratio = 0.3
The first and second modes of the wheel are found to be symmetric and occur at 311.80Hz (figure 2) and
314.74Hz respectively. The third mode as shown in figure 3 has a natural frequency of 893.80Hz.

Figure. 2 Mode 1: 311.80 Hz

Figure. 3 Mode 3: 893.80 Hz

2.2 Experimental Modal Analysis

The wheel was suspended by chords in free-free boundary condition as shown in figure 1. Data was acquired at
18 points on the wheel, nine on the front rim and nine on the rear while the wheel was excited by an impact
hammer at one of these points chosen as the reference point. Figure 4 shows the Frequency Response Functions
for all the response locations as well as the Complex Mode Indicator Function (marked in blue). The CMIF is a
tool to identify clearly all the modes in a system, which may not be easily observed in an FRF. It can be seen here
that while the FRF curves show the first two closely spaced symmetric modes as a single mode, they can be
distinctly observed in the CMIF curve. There is one CMIF curve for each reference point.

2 c lo s e ly s p a c e d m o d e s
C M IF c u rv e

Figure. 4 Complex Mode Indicator Function

Multi-Degree of Freedom methods; Rational Fraction Polynomial and nonlinear least squares curve fitting
methods, were used to estimate modal parameters of natural frequencies and damping for the wheel. Figure 5
shows the curve fit from the RFP method that helps precisely identify the first 2 closely spaced modes, their
natural frequencies and Q factors (1/2), where denotes the viscous damping coefficient.

Figure. 5 MDOF curve fit using RFP method to identify first 2 closely spaced modes
In addition modal parameters were estimated from a nonlinear least squares curve fitting method to verify results
from RFP. The natural frequencies and Q factors were found to match closely for both these modes as is seen in
table 1.
RFP

Non-linear Least Squares

n (Hz)

Q Factor

n (Hz)

Q Factor

Mode 1

267.1

898.1

268.1

1002.2

Mode 2

273.4

620.4

272.1

596.9

Mode 3

738.4

491.4

740.1

349.8

Table. 1 Natural frequency and damping factors estimated from 2 different MDOF curve fitting methods
2.3 Results and FE-Test Correlation
The first two closely spaced modes obtained from modal parameter estimation of the experimental data also
reveal two symmetric modes like in the case of the simulation model. They arise out of physical symmetry of the
wheel geometry. Thus while the mode shapes are similar for both modes occurring in two different planes of
symmetry; they are in reality two distinct modes with different resonant frequencies.
Figures 6 and 7 show a visual correlation of mode shapes obtained from the test and FE models. The mode
shapes are found to be similar for modes, 1 and 3. This brings us confidence in the correctness of assumptions
made in the simulation model.

Figure. 6 Comparison of mode shapes for mode 1 between EMA (left) and FEA (right) images in VMAPTM

Figure. 7 Comparison of mode shapes for mode 3 between EMA (left) and FEA (right) images in VMAPTM
3 Suspension System Modal Analysis
This experiment is an example of a modal analysis study conducted on an automotive suspension system
suspended in free-free condition as shown in figure 8.

Figure. 8 Automotive suspension system freely suspended from a bungee cord

3.1 Finite Element Simulation
In the original finite element model, the rod at the centre of the spring was connected to the top cylinder. This
prevented the occurrence of the compression mode of the spring that was detected only in the experiment and
was missing in the simulation result. The solid model was later re-designed to take into account the compression
mode by allowing the center of the spring to move freely within the top cylinder.
The finite element model for the suspension system comprise of solid tetrahedral elements. The following are the
material properties which were selected for the simulation:
Youngs Modulus: 200GPa
Density: 7800 kg/m3
Poissons Ratio: 0.3
The boundary conditions were chosen to be free-free.
The revised simulation model resulted in three modes, out of which the first two were ignored as they did not
represent a valid physical configuration of the structure. The third mode was found to be the compression mode of
the spring, which occurred at 27 Hz. As it was observed that this particular mode remained unaffected by changes
to the model, this mode was verified to be a relevant mode.
3.2 Experimental Modal Analysis
Accelerometers were mounted along the axis of the spring in the longitudinal direction of the suspension system
in order to capture the compression mode. Natural frequency and damping parameters were estimated using
RFP, and nonlinear least squares curve fitting techniques to determine accurate values for the compression mode
natural frequency and damping and they are verified to match closely as is seen in table 2. The fit curve and
CMIF curve in figure 9 show the compression mode of the spring at around 30Hz. From table 2, we notice also
that the damping factors are lower, or in other words, the damping coefficients, are higher as compared to
those for the wheel (refer table 1), which is expected for a suspension structure that basically acts like a dash-pot
element. The natural frequencies solved from both FE and test models are also found to be similar; within 10% of
each other.

Compressionmodeofspring
CMIF

FitCurve

Figure. 9 MDOF Nonlinear least squares curve fit at compression mode of 30 Hz

RFP

Compression
Mode

Non-linear Least Squares

n (Hz)

Q Factor

n (Hz)

Q Factor

30.4

147.3

30.3

161.9

Table. 2 Natural frequency and damping factors estimated from 2 MDOF curve fitting methods
4 Exhaust Pipe Modal Analysis
This case study involves the analysis of an automotive exhaust system as shown in figure 10. The pipe is a
combination of 3 units; the exhaust and engine manifolds connected to either side of a central drum. The
specifications of the test specimen are a total length of 1.3m and weight of 6kg. The entire system was
suspended by chords (as shown in figure 10) to simulate free-free boundary conditions.
The drum, like in a typical exhaust system, is
not completely hollow and is presumed to
comprise of a metallic mesh in the form of
filters or a catalytic converter and possibly
some filtrate spread across its inner surface.
Therefore, while the material properties of the
two manifolds were known, the primary
challenge in modeling the system was to
estimate accurately the density of the central
drum for the simulation model.

Figure. 10 Exhaust Pipe Prototype

4.1 Finite Element Simulation

The material properties; Youngs modulus and density for the engine and exhaust manifold components of the
exhaust system were known to be 1.9e11 N/m2 and 8000 kg/m3 respectively. However the material properties of
the drum alone had to be estimated approximately by physically measuring its weight and were therefore
inaccurate.
After correlating simulation results with experiment and iteratively updating material properties of the exhaust pipe
cylinder, we finally converged to a Youngs modulus of 2.1e11 N/m2 and density of 1000 kg/m3 for the cylinder
such that the mode shapes and their natural frequencies matched closely with those from test. Modes 1 and 2
and modes 3 and 4 were found to exist in near identical pairs of frequencies and mode shapes due to the physical
symmetry of the structure. Modes 1 and 2 occur at 58.96 Hz and 63.18 Hz respectively while modes 3 and 4 have
natural frequencies of 142.91 Hz and 162.32 Hz respectively.
4.2 Experimental Modal Analysis
The number of samples chosen for this experiment was 15000 and frequency range was chosen to be 1000Hz.
For an impulse excitation given at one of seven measurement points on the structure, accelerometers were
mounted on those points along its length. This procedure was repeated for two more reference points from among
those seven locations. The mode indicator function curves in figure 11, indicate comparable peaks for all 3
reference points for lower modes suggesting that all 3 points are dominant at lower frequencies while only one
point (colored blue) dominates the modes at higher frequencies.

Figure. 11 Complex Mode Indicator Functions

Single degree of freedom circle fitting was performed to extract accurate modal parameters from the measured
frequency response functions. Figure 12 illustrates clearly the identification of the first two closely spaced
individual peaks at 55.74Hz and 60.37Hz.

n = 55.74Hz

n = 60.37Hz

Figure. 12 SDOF circle fitting for first 2 symmetric modes

Circle Fit

Table 3 shows a comparison of modal parameters

estimated from the SDOF circle fitting method and
MDOF RFP method for modes 2 and 3, which are
found to match closely for both natural frequencies
and Q factors.

RFP

n (Hz)

Q Factor

n (Hz)

Q Factor

Mode 2

60.34

608.27

60.61

618.65

Mode 3

116.59

88.21

116.67

86.51

Table. 3 Natural frequency and damping factors estimated from SDOF and MDOF curve fitting methods
4.3 Results and FE-Test Correlation
A visual correlation of the mode shapes from test and FEA was performed in VMAPTM as shown in figure 13
below. It can be explained that the closely spaced modes, modes, 1 and 2 and modes, 3 and 4 exist because of
the near physical symmetry of the structure. For the same reason, identical mode shapes are also seen for the
two closely spaced mode pairs, the mode shape being repeated in the two planes of symmetry of the structure.

Test Mode 1 (56Hz) and Mode 2 (60Hz)

Test Mode 3 (117Hz) and Mode 4 (142Hz)

FEA Mode 1 (58.96Hz) and Mode 2 (63.18Hz)

FEA Mode 3 (142.91Hz) and Mode 4 (162.32Hz)

Figure. 13 FE-Test Mode Shape Correlations in VMAP

5 Summary and Conclusions

Performing experimental modal analysis on each of the three automotive examples helped in validating the
simulation results by correlating them with the test data to accurately determine the modal parameters of the
system. As modeling assumptions are so sensitive that a small variation in density and elasticity modulus can
result in large discrepancies in the natural frequencies obtained from simulation, the FE models were updated
carefully after comparing results from test.
In the wheel case study we see that closely spaced modes due to physical symmetry of the structure were
identified and characterized using mode indicator functions and curve fitting methods.
The compression mode of the suspension system was clearly identified in the mode indicator function and curve
fitting methods applied to the frequency response functions derived from test data. The initial absence of the
compression mode in the simulation model was detected from experimental analysis, which prompted revising the
model to reflect the missing mode shape and consequently helped in validating the FE model. The natural
frequencies obtained from both test and finite element analysis were found to be very close; 30 Hz and 27 Hz
respectively resulting in a good correlation.
In cases such as that of the exhaust pipe modal study, where there is insufficient data available to rely on
simulation results, experimental modal analysis has been effectively applied to validate and correct the FE models
against realistic modal parameters obtained from test. Difficulties in FEA modeling are overcome by validation
against experiment through correlation. After comparing results from test, the assumed material properties of the
cylinder, namely, Young's modulus and density were iteratively updated until we were able to match them fairly
closely with the natural frequencies and mode shapes obtained from experiment. Closely spaced modes due to
physical symmetry of the structure were identified and characterized using SDOF and MDOF curve fitting
TM
methods in VMAP .