Automotive Suspension Abaqus CAE Plug in

YH 2015-10-16

Dear Abaqus user,

I am uploading the Automotive Suspension Abaqus/CAE Plug-in. The main purpose to provide this Abaqus/CAE plug-in is 1) to help the Abaqus user create an automotive suspension system model including rigid vehicle body or Finite Element tire and 2) to provide a certain workflow to create automotive suspension system including flexible component, which is finite element model. With this plug-in user can create rigid body vehicle model to check its kinematic or quasi-static behavior first. And then, flexible body model can be created just by replacing the rigid component with flexible model, which will be finite element model or substructure model in a certain user’s directory.

There are three attached files:

AutoSuspBuilder.zip: Automotive Suspension Abaqus/CAE Plug-in
AutoSuspensionPlugins_Nov_2014.pptx: Instruction Presentation.
WorkingFolderData.zip: Data file you need in your working directory.

You can follow the same Abaqus/CAE plug-in installation procedure to install this plug-in (AutoSuspBuilder.zip). And you need to unzip WorkingFolderData.zip file in your working directory. In WorkingFolderData.zip file, there are several connector property input file for the plug-in. You need to modify the connector properties for your model. In Automotive Suspension Abaqus/CAE plug-in, all joints are defined with connector element. For example, all bushing joints are modelled with “Cartesian, Cardan” connector type by default. And its connector property, such as connector elasticity, is defined in external Abaqus input file, whose name is starting with “CB_” as seen in WorkingFolderData.zip file. And finite element models for suspension and vehicle body are included in WorkingFolderData.zip file. All models came from Taurus model, which you can download from NCAC (National Crash Analysis Center) FE archive. The original Taurus model with LS-Dyna format was translated to Abaqus format. The original Taurus model has been developed by The National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) of The George Washington University under a contract with the FHWA and NHTSA of the US DOT. And a representative finite element tire model is also included. Since the material properties are assumed for the convenience, user need to modify for the own purpose.

A brief instruction, AutoSuspensionPlugins_Nov_2014.pptx, is included. It will be helpful to understand how to use this plug-in.