TECHNICAL ARTICLE

CHASSIS SIM GUIDE

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Inputs
Circuit
Simulation
Output

Introduction

This document provides an overview and short guide to using the Chassisim software.

The user is greeted by a simple window with a diagrammatic representation of the car
(either covered wheels or single seater) and its main parameters.

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Inputs

The aerodynamic properties are set with text files and user entered parameters.

The “Weight” section contains all of the inertial properties of the vehicle.

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The spring and damper section contains the heart of the dynamic modelling of the
software.

There appears to be a mistake in the graph. It should show damper velocity in mm/s,
else for example 450 m/s means a damper speed of 1620km/h which is above
Mach1...

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The tyres section stores information about setup and tyre characteristics

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Tyre properties can also be entered via a .dat file. It appears that units in the file are in
Newtons and that the first number is the vertical load (N) and the second is the
long/lat load (N).

The user can set the anti-roll bar properties as a linear rate (N/mm) which can be
calculated from simple structural mechanics in the useful Roll Bar Rate Calculator.

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The engine power windows plots data in SI units of kW.

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The View menu shows the “Suspension Guide”

Circuit

The Circuit menu holds extra circuit and damper data. This is useful for the situations
where a real data log is available so that track conditions can be replicated such as
bumps.

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The approach to the circuit corners can also be modified. The numbers appear to be
modifiers to turn in, apex and exit hence describing whether the driving model takes
an early or late apex

The circuit can also have variable grip and bump factors

Simulation

The Simulate menu contains options to log data after a simulation in a variety of
formats, including Pi Toolbox.

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The Simulate menu also contains some optimisation options for aero and dampers.

The tyre force determination accepts a steer file, or acceleration file. It is not known
however how the file should be formatted.

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The demo version has very simple early graphics.

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Output

After the simulation run, a lap time is given. The math/software engine outputs the
following results:

Starting Simulation run

Corner parameters
Circuit parameters
Turn parameters
Circuit file size
Front/Rear Vertical and Horizontal coefficents
Camber coefficents
Brake length
Initial velocity is
Final velocity
Apex speeds and Turn speeds
Brake lengths
Deducing chicanes (time taken at each segment of the corner, entry and exit)
Final V and expected V

Simulation time for the larger tracks (such as Philip Island for example) can be up to 5
mins or more. Example simulation results are shown below.

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One of the outputs is a track map indicating the gears and corner speeds.

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The speed and driver input channels provide a useful visualisation feature.

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The track contains a column with track length and a column with numbers that are not
immediately obvious. These are probably values for Curvature (1/radius). This leaves
the door open for the user to create tracks from geometric or inertial/speed data.

As a test, a track of Hockenheim was made from Pi Toolbox with the channels
Distance and a math channel called TurnCurvature. The track text file is inserted via
the Simulate menu. The result is a map which roughly resembles the one from Pi
Toolbox so long as a -1 scale factor is applied in order to flip the map in the opposite
sense.

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A comparison of the speed traces (notwithstanding the differences in the car models –
Pi Toolbox F1 car vs ChassisSim ChampCar model) shows how the math engine is
consistent for most corners apart from some corners where possibly the track data is
not so clear. These corners are highlighted

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Subtle differences in mapping algorithms seem to have a large effect on vehicle

speed, an indication that the accuracy of the vehicle path still has a significant impact
on performance when compared to tyre data for example.

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