Systems Engineering Approach to Design of Vehicle Handling Dynamics

The primary objective of this research is to develop an integrated system engineering methodology for the conceptual design of vehicle handling dynamics early on in the product development process. A systems engineering-based simulation framework is developed that connects subjective, customer-relevant handling expectations and manufacturers' brand attributes to higher-level objective vehicle engineering targets and consequently breaks these targets down into subsystem-level requirements and component-level design specifications. The proposed simulation-based design methodology for the conceptual design of vehicle handling characteristics is implemented using decomposition-based Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) techniques and evolutionary, multi-objective optimization algorithms coupled within the systems engineering framework. This work has contributed towards development of a unique approach to integrate market research into the vehicle handling design process. It utilizes brand essence information derived from market research for the derivation and balancing of vehicle level targets, and thereby guides the chassis design direction using relative brand attributes weights.