Full Vehicle Road Holding
Maximize vehicle performance by optimizing vehicle design trade-off’s between down-force and suspension tuning.
Understanding a vehicle’s road holding is critical to optimizing suspension performance, cornering stability, and overall handling. Automotive OEMs, performance engineers, and research laboratories conduct these evaluations to balance downforce, traction, and ride comfort, ensuring safety, driver confidence, and competitive performance across variable road conditions and dynamic maneuvers.
Test Methods
Evaluating vehicle road holding involves reproducing dynamic cornering, braking, and acceleration conditions while measuring tire forces, load transfer, and lateral stability. Tests apply controlled longitudinal, lateral, and vertical tire forces to simulate real-world maneuvers and road profiles. Instrumentation captures wheel slip, steering response, and suspension deflection to quantify handling limits. Laboratory-based tire-coupled road simulators provide repeatable and precise simulation of on-road dynamics, allowing systematic assessment of suspension tuning, downforce effects, and vehicle response. These methods support optimization of performance trade-offs, enabling engineers to refine suspension and aerodynamic characteristics while minimizing on-road testing variability.
Test Results
Results from road holding evaluations guide engineers in tuning suspension geometry, damping, and tire selection for optimal stability, traction, and handling. Manufacturers and test labs use this data to validate design trade-offs, enhance vehicle performance, and support safety and regulatory compliance.
MTS Product Solutions
The MTS Full Vehicle Road Holding portfolio leverages precision tire-coupled road simulators to replicate dynamic cornering, braking, and acceleration maneuvers under controlled laboratory conditions. Integrated control, hydraulic, and data acquisition systems provide repeatable measurements of tire forces, suspension motion, and vehicle response, enabling rapid evaluation and optimization of handling performance across conventional, hybrid, and electric vehicles.
Test Methods
Evaluating vehicle road holding involves reproducing dynamic cornering, braking, and acceleration conditions while measuring tire forces, load transfer, and lateral stability. Tests apply controlled longitudinal, lateral, and vertical tire forces to simulate real-world maneuvers and road profiles. Instrumentation captures wheel slip, steering response, and suspension deflection to quantify handling limits. Laboratory-based tire-coupled road simulators provide repeatable and precise simulation of on-road dynamics, allowing systematic assessment of suspension tuning, downforce effects, and vehicle response. These methods support optimization of performance trade-offs, enabling engineers to refine suspension and aerodynamic characteristics while minimizing on-road testing variability.
Test Results
Results from road holding evaluations guide engineers in tuning suspension geometry, damping, and tire selection for optimal stability, traction, and handling. Manufacturers and test labs use this data to validate design trade-offs, enhance vehicle performance, and support safety and regulatory compliance.
MTS Product Solutions
The MTS Full Vehicle Road Holding portfolio leverages precision tire-coupled road simulators to replicate dynamic cornering, braking, and acceleration maneuvers under controlled laboratory conditions. Integrated control, hydraulic, and data acquisition systems provide repeatable measurements of tire forces, suspension motion, and vehicle response, enabling rapid evaluation and optimization of handling performance across conventional, hybrid, and electric vehicles.
- Model 320 Tire-Coupled Road Simulators apply controlled longitudinal, lateral, and vertical loads to individual tires, reproducing on-road handling maneuvers. They enable precise evaluation of vehicle dynamics, suspension tuning, and downforce trade-offs in a repeatable laboratory environment.
- FlexTest® Controllers provide high-speed, synchronized control of actuators and sensors during road holding tests, ensuring accurate replication of tire forces and suspension inputs for comprehensive handling evaluation.
- RPC® Connect Software enables real-time data acquisition, analysis, and visualization of tire forces, wheel motion, and vehicle response, supporting efficient test execution and correlation with design models.
- Series 295 Hydraulic Service Manifolds provide precise control and distribution of hydraulic power to actuators, ensuring repeatable application of forces for dynamic road holding simulations.
- SilentFlo™ 515 & 525 Hydraulic Power Units deliver stable, low-noise hydraulic power for actuators, supporting accurate and repeatable road holding maneuvers in laboratory testing.
