Besides describing methods available for load analysis it is important to sketch

the context
of application of the methods. It is necessary to decide in specific application
s which kind of
method is best suited for a certain task. Thus, the complete engineering design
process is
considered and some requirements on the methods are pointed out at various stage
s of
the process.
As can be seen from the schematic vehicle engineering process in Figure 1.2, the
loads
acting on specific components of a vehicle depend, on the one hand, on the exter
nal target
load setting, which is assumed to depend on the envisaged customers but not on t
he specific
vehicle, and, on the other hand, on the path the load is taken from outer excita
tions, which for
trucks and cars depend on the road profile, through the tyres, the suspension an
d bearings
to a local spot of the vehicle. The latter dependency is the topic to be discuss
ed in the
following. Taking this view we can talk about of loads on different levels, name
ly