For most powertrain development projects the durability test program is on the time critical path. Therefore, to reduce the time to market, accelerated endurance testing is required.
This is the background for AVL's continuos research activities aiming to increase the acceleration factor of test bed durability tests and to simulate in-vehicle durability tests on dynamic engine test beds.
For drivetrain development, the methodology is already well established as the drivetrain is mainly under mechanical loads. For the combustion engine two damaging modes are important, wear and thermo-mechanical fatigue, which have, up to now, not allowed to use similar methodologies. Hence new methods are needed to assess a drive or test cycle with respect to accumulated engine damage. Simulation techniques and thin layer activation (TLA) are tools to support this process.
Accelerated durability tests and the approach "From Road to Rig" are powerful tools to achieve reliable test results within the shortest possible time.