Question about DYNATUNE Ride & Handling Software Tool

[somuchtolearn]

Hello all you experts out there,

I am new to the business of vehicle dynamics and I am looking all over the internet for interesting software that would be worth looking into to make me a better dynamicist. I just came across a tool called DYNATUN-XL which seems to be based on Excel and it looks quite neat to me. I was wondering whether anyone of you has used it and whether it is any good ?

Thx for any feedback

Roy

 

[GregLocock]

I use a similar, albeit less detailed, spreadsheet and it is very useful for setting up a new car from scratch, or a quick and dirty retune of spring rates.

Bear in mind that it can only help you reliably if the data you put in is correct and complete, for example working out your understeer budget is nigh on impossible without more detail than a tire manufacturer will ever give you, and if you can't measure the compliance steer on the car. Again with shock absorbers, there seems little point in developing a shock absorber curve in dynatune unless you have the capability of revalveing and measuring the performance of your shocks.

So... it rather depends what you want to use it for.





Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[somuchtolearn]

Hi Greg,

many thanks for your reply to a novice. It is highly appreciated.

I completely agree with you on the fact that if the data is not sufficiently accurate the results can only be marginal.

In the meantime I have been stumbling around on their website and downloaded the pdf copy of the sheet and to be honest I am very impressed with all the features I have seen there. There is a Suspension K&C Database and a Tire Tool which seems to be very helpful for a novice like me. Then there are many graphic representations I have never seen, for instance Bounce & Pitch Center Carpet plots, 3D Performance Envelopes and even a 4D(!) Understeer Graph, which you probably know, but I need to reflect about them to understand them well. Then there is a Laptime Simulation Tool which seems good fun to me (I did not know that one could do this in Excel). Finally I found on their website also validation report for a high performance vehicle and the correlation looks very good to me (as far as I can judge).

I just downloaded the free demo version but that one is rather stripped down. Before considering to buy the all singing all dancing Expert Version I keep hoping to find someone who could give me some feedback on it from a user perspective.

Cheers

Roy

 

[cibachrome]

OK, so you buy the software, now what? All you can do is change 'parts' and go for a test drive. We call them mechanics. You need to learn WHY things act the way they do, the vernacular, and the equations of motion that control the dynamics. Then you need to be able to flow down a synthesis starting from objective requirements and finally producing a hardware set that delivers these objectives. That's how things are done now globally by successful companies and individuals.

Other than that is just playing in a sandbox. Take a graduate level college course. Read up on the many books on the subject. Get a student version of Matlab and try your hand at Simulink or SimMechanics. Volunteer for a local Formula SAE college Team Stewardship. Wear tall boots...

 

[somuchtolearn]

Hi Cibachrome,

I am trying to do exactly as you said, I am reading books about dynamics, about 6 DOF models with their equations of motion and all that stuff you are referring too. Since I am not the kind of Matlab guy (it is a good tool but most mechanical engineers like mnyself hate it) and since I do not want to spend tons of time to start learning how to drive ADAMS (or likewise programs) I was just looking for something that could help my in my formation. You know, learn what happens to my understeer budget if I change rollbars or how does transient behavior change (frequency response etc. etc.) just to get a feel for the numbers. Since the tool is in Excel it is ready to go any computer and I was curious about it, that's all.

Roy

 

[dynatune]

Dear Roy,

I have been made aware of the thread and being the guy that has written the program you are referring to, I can tell you only that it is way more capable of doing some "rough springrates" (at least some of the finest cars in automotive history and sportscars that hold some records have been designed with DYNATUNE) and it is certainly one of the best tool to test out your ideas and see what results of your actions are, that is exactly how I learned the business. In fact the tool is creating a bit of a panic amongst various suppliers of vehicle dynamics tools, all of them are buying it to benchmark it I guess ..... but then again, I am probably biased.

Paul