Automotive applications for test/analysis correlation

Analytical simulation is being used more frequently in automotive design and development to address concerns such as ride, handling, and NVH. An important consideration in these types of simulation is the accuracy of the analytical model. For this reason, a critical, but often difficult, stage in modeling is the validation of the model with measured test data. In recent years, correlation software has been developed to alleviate some of the burden of model validation. The newest software capability is based on formulations directed at correlating models to measured frequency response functions (FRFs). In this paper, the techniques needed for applying an FRF-based correlation approach are presented using several automotive case histories.