OptimumDynamics – Tutorial #2

Running Your First Simulation

Welcome to OptimumDynamics!
In this tutorial we are going through everything to do with vehicle simulation! You will learn
how to create new simulations from scratch, importing real vehicle data and the steps required
to successfully run a simulation.

Learning Objectives Estimated Time 45 min

By the end of this tutorial you will be able to:

1. Import vehicle setups 3. Generate result files

2. Create and import simulation types 4. Import and validate track map
a. Force simulations
b. Acceleration 5. Export result files.

Contents

The following sections are presented in this tutorial. You can use these links to jump directly to
the part of the tutorial that you are up to.

Importing and Exporting Vehicle Setups 2

Creating a Single Force Simulation 5
Multiple Step Acceleration Simulation 8
Track Replay Simulation 12
Exporting Result Files 20

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Importing and Exporting Vehicle Setups Tutorial 10% Done

This tutorial carries on from tutorial #1 – Designing Your First Vehicle. You can either continue
on from your project in this tutorial or you can load the vehicle setup models that were
included in this tutorial folder. In this tutorial we will assume you are creating a fresh project for
tutorial #2.

Start by creating a new project

1. Select the File tab

2. Select New
3. Click New Project
4. Type in Tutorial 2 as the File Name
5. Choose a File Location to save the project

Now import the three vehicle setups included in the tutorial folder

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click on the Setup icon in the ribbon menu
3. Select Import
4. Click OptimumDynamics File
5. Browse to the tutorial 2 folder and you should find three vehicle setup files
6. Select the first file ‘Vehicle Setup. SOFT ARB’
7. Click Open

At this point the vehicle setup should load into the project. You can explore the vehicle setup
definition to see what components are included in the model. You can also edit the component
definitions here if desired. Before we try doing that though first import the additional two
vehicle setups named

1. Vehicle Setup. MEDIUM ARB

2. Vehicle Setup. HARD ARB

You should now have three vehicle setups in the project that we will be using for running
simulations in OptimumDynamics.

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Let us quickly demonstrate how the vehicle setup can be modified. With the vehicle setup open
you should be able to see all of the input data in the vehicle setup.

1. Double click on Vehicle Setup. MEDIUM ARB

2. Double Click on the ‘Front ARB MEDIUM’ object in the component list
3. On the right hand side of the screen you should now be able to see the model definition
for the front ARB.
4. Change the stiffness of the ARB to 40 N/mm
5. Close the object using the button and accept the changes.

6. Repeat similar changes in Vehicle Setup. HARD ARB

7. Change the Front ARB HARD to 40 N/mm

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You can also export individual components from the vehicle setup if you wish to reuse them
later. Let’s export a new ARB model of our modified ARB to demonstrate this.

1. First Save the project using the save button at the top left of the program
2. Double Click on Vehicle Setup. HARD ARB
3. Right Click the ‘Rear ARB HARD’ component
4. Select ‘Export to Library’

If you now click on the design tab and look in the vehicle library, you should see a Component
in the ARB folder named Rear ARB HARD. You can also export to an external folder in much
the same manner using ‘Export to File’

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Creating a Single Force Simulation Tutorial 20% Done

Now we are going to start by creating a single state force simulation. Start by navigating back
to the Simulation tab. A single state force solves for the vehicle position and forces for a single
force definition. There is only one simulation step in this simulation type.

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click on the Force icon in the ribbon menu
3. Select New Single Force
4. Type in Single Lateral Force as the File
Name and keep the default file location
5. Click OK

You should see the following screen. Here we define all the parameters for a single force type
simulation.

1. Ensure the Include Gravity checkbox is

ticked. This creates a vertical force due to
gravity
2. Add a lateral force of 10,000 N

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With a vehicle setup and a simulation defined we can create a result file. Let’s try solving one of
our vehicle setups for the simulation that we just defined. Since we are just doing a one off
simulation we will be using the Quick Run simulation

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click on the Quick Run icon in the ribbon menu
3. Type in Vehicle Setup Soft – Single Lateral Force as the File Name and keep the default
file location
4. Select the Vehicle Setup. SOFT ARB as the desired vehicle setup for the simulation
5. Select Single Lateral Force as the desired simulation type
6. Click Run

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At this point the software takes over and you will be presented with a progress bar for the
simulation. The simulation begins by converting your vehicle model and simulation into the
required form for the solver. It then finds the required position and forces acting on the vehicle
to meet the simulation parameters.

If the simulation is completed successfully you should see the following screen by the end of
the solution. At this point just click Close and you will notice that you have a results file open.
Let’s not worry about the actual results too much yet as we will be going through those in
detail in Tutorial 3.

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Multiple Step Acceleration Simulation Tutorial 40% Done

It’s time to make something a little bit more interesting. We are going to define a multiple step
acceleration simulation that we will be using as a basis for evaluating the three vehicle setups
in Tutorial 3. There are multiple simulation steps in this type of simulation.

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click on the Acceleration icon in the ribbon menu
3. Select New Acceleration
4. Type in Lateral Acceleration Sweep as the File Name and keep the default file location
5. Click OK

You should be presented with the following screen.

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Let’s add a point to the acceleration profile

1. Click on the Lat radio button. This will allow us to

input values for the lateral acceleration.
2. In the X coordinate input 10
3. In the Y coordinate input 2 𝑚/𝑠 2
4. Click Add
5. Now add in the following table of values

X Y
(% completion) (𝒎/𝒔𝟐 )
10 2.0
20 3.0
30 5.0
40 6.0
50 6.5
60 7.5
70 6.0
80 3.0
90 1.0

You will end up with a profile looking like this

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Let’s look at some other things while we are here.

1. Try pressing the Cubic Spline checkbox and see what happened to the lateral
acceleration plot. What you should notice is that the linear line segments are converted
into a smoothed curve. When the simulation is run the actual points are found by
interpolating along the curve segments. You should leave the box unchecked for now.

2. The Number of Steps in this simulation determines how many simulation positions are
solved for. The number of solution steps in the result is equal to this number. The more
steps you have the longer the simulation will take to solve. Leave this set to 20 for now.

3. In the horizontal axis completion tab you can choose whether the inputs are a function
of % completion, time or distance. For now you should just leave this set to %
completion

4. You can also define the curve as a function of longitudinal acceleration, vertical
acceleration, steering and velocity by clicking on the appropriate toggle. You may have
any combination of these. For now let’s just leave it as only a lateral acceleration
simulation.

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Just like we did for the single state acceleration we need to run the simulation for a vehicle
setup.

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click on the Quick Run icon in the ribbon menu
3. Type in Vehicle Setup Soft – Lateral Acceleration as the File Name and keep the default
file location
4. Select the Vehicle Setup. SOFT ARB as the desired vehicle setup for the simulation
5. Select Lateral Acceleration Sweep as the desired simulation type
6. Click Run

Now repeat this for each of the other two vehicle setups. Make sure you change the FileName
appropriately. We are going to use these results in the next tutorial. Make sure you select the
corresponding vehicle setup for each of the simulations.

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Track Replay Simulation Tutorial 60% Done

Now we are going to do one final simulation that we will use later. For this simulation we are
going to import the actual accelerations, steering and velocity that were logged from a vehicle
data acquisition system. We are going to load this data from an Excel/CSV file.

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click the Acceleration icon in the ribbon menu
3. Select Import
4. Click Excel/CSV File
5. Change the File Type to CSV Files (*.csv)
6. Browse to the Tutorial 2 folder
7. Select the file named Tutorial2-Spa and click Open

At this point you should see the file load within the OptimumDynamics Import Form

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Now we need to select the appropriate data to generate the simulation.

1. Change the Input Method to Time.

2. Click in the Data Range cell for Time and click the icon
3. Select the numerical data in Column A of the CSV file
4. Ensure the UnitType for Time is second
5. Change the UnitType for AccelerationX, AccelerationY and AccelerationZ to g force.
6. For the AccelerationX Data Range select the numerical data in Column D
7. For the AccelerationY Data Range select the numerical data in Column C
8. For the AccelerationZ Data Range select the numerical data in Column E
9. Ensure the UnitType for Velocity is kilometer/hour
10. For the Velocity Data Range select the numerical data in Column F
11. Ensure the UnitType for Steering is degree
12. For the Steering Data Range select the numerical data in Column G

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Click OK and you should end up with an acceleration simulation similar to this

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Let’s check this simulation is valid for producing a track map. You should be able to see a
Track Map tab on the bottom of the window. Click this to view the track map. You can also
click the icon to indicate that this is a closed rather than an open track.

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Now we should also set a few parameters before the simulation.

1. Change the simulation steps to 200. This simply determines how many individual
simulation steps the imported acceleration profile will be broken up into.

Ok now it is time to run the simulations

1. Select the Simulation tab

2. Click the Quick Run icon in the ribbon menu
3. Select Vehicle Setup. SOFT ARB
4. Select Spa
5. Change the Result Name to Vehicle Setup – Soft – Spa
6. Keep the default File Location and click Run

The solver should begin to solve. The progress bar at the top of the window tells you what
percentage of the simulation has been completed. The output window will alert you of the
simulation progress and any errors that occur during the simulation. Because of the large
number of points in this simulation it may take a few minutes to solve. You can also stop or
cancel a simulation before it is completed. For now let the simulation complete without
interfering.

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With the simulation complete close the solver window if it is not already and a result file will be
generated. Let’s have a very quick look at the results to ensure the simulation results make
sense.

1. Select the Analysis tab

2. Double Click on the Vehicle Setup – Soft – Spa result file that we just created

When you first open the result file you will be presented with a list of output channels that
were calculated during the simulation. There is also a search box at the top of this window and
some options for sorting the data.

1. In the search box begin to type Solver Converged

2. Select the Checkbox next to Solver Converged

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Firstly you should notice that on the right of the screen will be a table of results for the
simulation. For each output channel selected the calculated value will be displayed for every
simulation step.

The other thing you should notice is the tooltip at the bottom of the channel selection window.
This gives an explanation of what the output channel is calculating. In this case the Solver
Converged channel is simply a true or false statement about whether the simulation
successfully converged or not.

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Look through each of the rows to check if any of the steps failed. A value of 0 in the solver
converged channel would represent a failed solution. You can also look at the statistics at the
top of the table. A minimum value of 1 would mean there are no 0 values in the column at all.
This means that the simulation has converged for every point of the simulation. You should not
see any convergence failures for the simulation we just conducted.

Sometimes there can still be issues where the solver has converged but the simulation inputs
are not actually achievable with the given vehicle model. To check if this is occurring.

1. Uncheck all selected output channels

2. Click the Chart tab in the display window
3. Type in Acceleration in the quick search box
4. Select Acceleration Input [Lateral] and Resultant Lateral Acceleration

The two sets of results should overlay each other exactly, apart from some small error in the
solution. You can do the same thing for

 Acceleration Input [Longitudinal]

 Acceleration Input [Vertical]

Before we move on, run the same simulation for the other two setups. We will be using these
results in the next tutorial. Remember to change the Name of each of these simulations
appropriately.

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Exporting Result Files Tutorial 90% Done

The tutorial is almost over. The last thing that we need to do is to export the result files. This is
a particularly useful function as it can be used to compare simulation results from different
projects without having to define new vehicle setups and simulation types.

1. Select the Analysis tab

2. Right Click on Vehicle Setup Soft – Lateral Acceleration

3. Select Export
4. Select OptimumDynamics File
5. Keep the default File Name. This should be the name of the result file
6. Choose a convenient File Location to save the file and click Save

Repeat this same process for the following result files. These result files will be used in Tutorial
3 for further analysis and investigation.

Result File Name

Vehicle Setup Medium – Lateral Acceleration
Vehicle Setup Hard – Lateral Acceleration
Vehicle Setup Soft – Spa
Vehicle Setup Medium – Spa
Vehicle Setup Hard – Spa

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Conclusion Tutorial 100% Done

Congratulations you have finished Tutorial 2. Let’s quickly review what you have learnt from
this tutorial and where you can go from here. During this tutorial you:

1. Imported multiple vehicle setups

2. Modified a vehicle setup
3. Exported a vehicle setup component
4. Created a single force simulation
5. Created a multiple acceleration simulation
6. Imported a track replay simulation
7. Ran multiple simulation types
8. Exported results for analysis

With Tutorial 2 complete you should move onto Tutorial 3. In this tutorial you will learn the
different methods that can be used for analyzing the result files that we generated in this
tutorial.

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