HYBRID MODELLING OF AN URBAN BUS

Sophisticated virtual prototyping methods have become a standard in the modern vehicle design process. Unfortunately, in many cases automobile manufacturers (in particular bus manufacturers) still do not take advantage of numerical de­sign techniques, basing instead on intuition and experience. In this paper hybrid modelling of an urban bus is presented. A hybrid bus model links different types of modelling that can be used to perform a wide range of virtual analyses of vehicle static and dynamic behaviour. The major objective of development and usage of a complex model is to reduce a time and cost of vehicle design process improving vehicle quality at the same time. The main advantage instead is a possibility to exploit a model for different performances of vehicle subsystems. A hybrid model representing real vehi­cle behaviour consists of three modelling techniques commonly used in automotive industry: multibody modelling, finite element modelling and multi- port (block) modelling. A full model has been developed via commercial software which ensures its availability among automotive engineers.