Vechile Dynamics Simulation

of a Racing Car by NISMO

Nissan Motorsports International Co.,Ltd.
Yasuharu Kamei
Toshiyuki Takahashi
 Contents
• NISMO and Racing activities
• Transition/History of Circuit simulation
• Case study with “VI-Sports Car”
• The advanced simulation technology for
vehicle dynamics performance
• Summary
 NISMO and Racing activities
Why does NISMO participate in or support various domestic and
international races?

NISMO is a subsidiary of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. of motorsports business. Its main
business activities are to design and sell motorsport vehicles as well as its parts, and to
manage domestic and international racing promotional activities. NISMO actively
participates in or supports various domestic as well as international races.

Contribution to establishment of Nissan Brand Identity

 NISMO and Racing activities
FIA GT1
NISMO participates in FIA GT1 which is an ideal racing category as a constructor
and provides GT-R to SUMO POWER GT and SWISS RACING TEAM
2010 Series(Total 10 Race/7 races finished）
）
SUMO POWER GT ⇒ Point Ranking 3rd (Rd.2 Winner）
SWISS RACING ⇒ Point Ranking 11th
 NISMO and Racing activities
FIA GT1
Providing racing cars and introducing the high level technology of Nissan

Length 4730 mm
Width 2040 mm
Wheel base 2780 mm
Weight 1250 kg （Y2010 Formulation）
ENG Max. Power 600 ps
ENG Max. Torque 650 Nm over
Suspension Type Double Wishborn(Front) #22, #23
Multi Link(Rear) SUMO POWER GT
Tire Size 31/71-18
31/71-18

#3, #4
SWISS RACING TEAM
 NISMO and Racing activities
SUPER GT
Participated in SUPER GT GT500 class as a works team
Acquired many wins and podiums in 2008 series with new GT-R
’08 Series(9 races)
#22, #23 :Qualification 1st/4time 2nd/twice
Result 1st /3times 2nd /twice
Series Champion
’09 Series(9 races)
#1 : Qualification 1st/3times
Result 1st/twice 2nd/once
Point Ranking 3rd Rd4 Sepang
’10 Series(8 races/6races finished)
#23 : Qualification 1st/once 2nd/once
Result 2nd/twice
Point Ranking 6th
Rd5 Sugo

Rd8 Motegi

Rd3 Rd7 Fuji

Rd2 Rd6 Suzuka

Rd1 Okayama
 NISMO and Racing activities
GT-R GT500
Maximize the vehicle ability of “accelerating, cornering and braking”
High Performance of GT-R
3

[G ]
lat. Acc.(G)
高G 走行
High G
G Tカー
・GT-R

ルの大きさ
・Commercial GT-R
市販車

of lon. and
The Norm 加速ベクト
Length 4695 mm
Width 2000 mm
Wheel base 2720 mm 1

前後+横方向
Weight 1100 kg
High高速走行
Speed
ENG Max. Power 450 ps over
ENG Max. Torque 48 Kgm over
0
Suspension Type Double Wishborn 0 100 200 300
Speed (km/h)
Tire Size 330/40R18 車速 [km /h]
330/45R17

High potential GT car is developed by Nismo’s effort

 Transition/History of Circuit Simulation
Development of GT Car and Vehicle Dynamics Simulation
Using simulation technology is very efficient to solve
the multiple problem of special GT Car development Design

Issues
1. Short Development Period
Vehicle Dynamics
2.Limitation of the circuit test Simulation

3.Changing of preconditions for study

Test

Counter Plan
Adopting and utilizing simulation technology
in order to smoothly pursue the
development cycle of design and tests.

Nismo is focusing on technical improvement of vehicle performance

8 simulation
to achieve a higher performance of GT car.
Transition/History of Circuit Simulation
Circuit Simulation
Circuit simulation is very important part in vehicle dynamics simulation to
pursue the vehicle maximum performance
Transition/History of Circuit Simulation in Nismo

1990 2000 2010

Quasi-static
Linear
Quasi-static
<Input>
Non-linear
Vehicle Spec.
Engine <Input> Dynamics including
Aerodynamics Vehicle Spec. transient behavior
Supension・Tire Engine(Non-linear) Non-Linear
Aerodynamics
<Output> Suspension
Lap Time VI-SportsCar including
Tire(Non-linear)
Speed detailed component and
Lon./Lat. Acc. <Output> driver model
・・・・ Lap Time
Speed
Lon./Lat. Acc.
Engine Rpm
Throttle Open 9
・・・
Transition/History of Circuit Simulation
VI-SportsCar Overview
Laptime simulation software by VI-grade
Detailed vehicle model based on MSC.AdamsTM
Maximized the vehicle performance using virtual vehicle and circuit
・Non-linear characteristics of component for a racing car
・Transient Behavior including a driver input
・Reaction force which is applied to each component
<Input> <Output>
Vehicle Spec. Laptime
Engine Speed
Aerodynamics Lon./Lat. Acc.
Suspension Char. Yaw Rate
Braking Char. Vehicle Path
Steering Char. Tire Force
Tire Tire State
Driver Model Posture Transition

SWA
Most of components Brake Force
are specified by Reaction force at
non-linear suspension,
characteristics. damper and spring
mount
・・・・
 Case study with VI-SportsCar
Case Study1
Investigating the influence of the vehicle setting parameters for unit
characteristics within short timeframe.
Simulation Case Study)
Laptime study beteen vehicle wieght balance and
downforce balance Testing an actual car is required
Lap Time Fast enormous amount of time for the
development process, such as building
prototype parts, preparing for tests and
others.

Lap Time Slow

Utilizing the VI-SporsCar dramatically

upgrade the efficiency of development
process.
 Case study with VI-SportsCar
Case Study 2
Extracting the vehicle states that are difficult to measure from an
actual car and comparing the influence of these parameters in VI-
SportsCar.
Difficulty of comparison of vehicle performance between difference settings
in a actual car.
-- Case of Body Stiffness by stiffening --
•Measurement noise is so big and comparison of time axis is misleading and confusing.
•Almost impossible to have exactly the same condition of climate, road condition and
tire wear and others.
•it is impossible to measure the performance tradeoff between rigidity improvement and
weight increase

Temperature of tire, Wear, Fuel Mass Transition

 Case study with VI-SportsCar
Case Study 2

Simulating the complex problem which is effected by multiple parameters.

The simulation can extract the slight changes by just changing and
reviewing the focused settings in simulation.
Simulation Case Study)
Body Stiffness vs Yaw Acceleration under the same steering wheel input.
The body stiffness effect of yaw acceleration
decrease increase

Increasing of the yaw acceleration under the

same condition because of the body stiffness.
↓
Steering Wheel Omega

Difficult for a actual car to change only stiffness.

Possible to review the complex

phenomenon in real world using
the vehicle dynamics simulation.

Steering Wheel Angle

The advanced simulation technology for
vehicle dynamics
1) Applying the optimized automatic calculation algorithm

Problem
• Huge number of parameters for simulation model.
• Needs enormous time to run the parameter study manually and find out
the best design.
A number of parameters which affect laptime
Combination of component characteristics

Ex.) Component A Component B Component C

・・・ Huge time to run all combination manually.
Unreasonable system(manual running)
A-1 B-1 C-1 ・・・ under the development process of the
・・・ racing car.
A-2 B-2 C-2

A-3 B-3 C-3 ・・・

・ ・ ・
・ ・ ・
Automatic running system is required
・ ・ ・ to speed up
A-a B-b C-c ・・・
The advanced simulation technology for
vehicle dynamics
VI-CarRealTime
1) Applying the optimized automatic calculation algorithm
Multi objective optimization algorithm for circuit simulation
Design parameters and characteristics which are defined by user
⇒ Automatic Running
1. Extracting the component sensitive to lap time.
2. Extracting the characteristic bands sensitive to laptime.
3. Finding out the best design for the fastest lap.
Ex.) Component A Component B Component C Component D Component E
・・・・

A-1 B-1 C-1 D-1 E-1 ・・・・

A-2 B-2 C-2 D-2 E-2 ・・・・

A-3 B-3 C-3 D-3 E-3 ・・・・

・ ・ ・ ・ ・
・ ・ ・ ・ ・
・ ・ ・ ・ ・
A-a B-b C-c D-d E-e ・・・・
The advanced simulation technology for
vehicle dynamics
2) Driver Model
Representing a professional driver who drives GT car.
• Momentarily sensing or recognizing the occurring vehicle motion
changes, make a judgment, and then feedback the data to be input.
• Optimizing the stability and maximum performance of GT car.

sense
To represent a human professional
drive
driver
・Response Speed
・Max. Steering Wheel Omega
Vehicle Behavior ・Stability
judge ・Coupling Control
・
・

NISMO aims to develop the modeling of the driver- machine interface at its
maximum running capability and also to perform the vehicle dynamics
simulation in higher dimension.
16
 Summary

Advantage
• Investigating component effects in short time
• Easy to measure any vehicle states
• Sensing the slight difference change of parameters
• Parameter study using huge number of design and characteristics parameters

Future Technology
• Accuracy of the absolute value(Laptime)
• Rolling over a kerb and response to irregularity of road
• Representing human driver effect

The simulation is efficient tool for the relative changes between combination
of component characteristics. And the correlation with the testing is required
to estimate the absolute value of the simulation results.
Thank you