ADAMS/Car Ride Release Notes

This component is a one degree of freedom force modeled by three linear springs and three linear dampers; the elements may be connected in different ways and eventually deactivated in order to create the following:

1. Linear Pfeffer element (one spring in parallel with a series damper - parallel spring damper)
   
2. Simple Frequency Dependent Damper (one spring in parallel with a series spring damper)
   
3. Simple Frequency Dependent Bushing (one spring in series with a parallel spring damper)
   
4. General Element (one parallel spring damper in parallel with a series of two parallel spring dampers)

Using the replace feature in Standard Interface, you can create a general frequency-dependent element as a replacement for a standard ADAMS/Car bushing. In the replacement element dialog box, select a property file and setting preload for the component.

This component is a six degrees of freedom force, having each component modeled by three linear springs and three linear dampers; the elements of the single component may be connected in different ways and eventually deactivated in order to create the following:

1. Linear Pfeffer element (one spring in parallel with a series damper - parallel spring damper)
   
2. Simple Frequency Dependent Damper (one spring in parallel with a series spring damper)
   
3. Simple Frequency Dependent Bushing (one spring in series with a parallel spring damper)
   
4. General Element (one parallel spring damper in parallel with a series of two parallel spring dampers)
   

You can also specify a preload for each force component.

Using the replace feature in Standard Interface, you can create a general frequency dependent element as a replacement for a standard ADAMS/Car bushing. In the replacement element dialog box, select a property file, setting preload, and activity for each component.

ADAMS-to-Nastran tool

ADM2NAS, the ADAMS-to-NASTRAN module in ADAMS/Car Ride, allows you to easily create a NASTRAN model of a vehicle from an existing ADAMS/Car full-vehicle assembly.

Since MSC.ADAMS is the most widely used mechanical simulation program for dynamics of rigid and flexible structures and MSC.Nastran is the most widely used mechanical simulation program for structural analysis, there is often a requirement for iterating a component design in NASTRAN based on reliable information on linearized dynamics of mechanical elements. ADM2NAS provides a direct link between the two programs, giving you a unique opportunity for a comprehensive dynamic investigation of a complex mechanical system.

If you have the NASTRAN model of a vehicle component or subassembly (chassis, suspension, sub-frame, and so on), ADM2NAS allows you to select an ADAMS/Car part and create a linearized NASTRAN model of the full vehicle, excluding the selected part. The linearized model will be converted as NASTRAN bulk data input and can then be assembled with a structural component model.

Documentation Enhancements

ADAMS/Car Ride Documentation Improvements

Improved documentation as follows:

• Added information on single-component and general frequency-dependent elements and the ADAMS-to-NASTRAN tool.
• Updated the online help and the guide, Getting Started Using ADAMS/Car Ride to reflect other changes made to the product.

Overall Documentation Improvements

For MSC.ADAMS 2005, we've made improvements to the MSC.ADAMS help:

• Added global search so you can search across the entire set of MSC.ADAMS help. To access the global search, do one of the following:

  • At the top of the help, select Switch Products, and then select the Search tab.

  • In any product, select the Search tab, and then in the window that appears, select Global Search.

  Note that the global search does not include any .pdfs (including getting started guides and ADAMS/Driver).

• Removed any hardcoding of font sizes so you can scale the text of the help to any size. Please note that many of the equations do not scale because they are images, and the help looks the best when viewed with medium (or 100%). In addition, your browser will print the text the same size as it is displayed.

• Documented many of the environment variables for the products to help customize your session. The environment variables are for ADAMS/Controls, ADAMS/Durability, ADAMS/Flex, ADAMS/Solver, ADAMS/View, and the template-based products (ADAMS/Aircraft, ADAMS/Car, ADAMS/Driveline, ADAMS/Rail). For more information, see the Running and Configuring help.

Items Resolved in 2003 Service Pack

The 2005 release of ADAMS/Car Ride includes all of the fixes and enhancements that were provided in the 2003 Service Pack. The resolved items are:

41584

The force vibration analysis macro failed with errors. Running a forced-vibration analysis produced the following error at the end of the solver run:

ERROR: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: Error detected on line number 19, character 69 of the macro '.vibration.ForcedVibrationAnalysis.create_FVA'.
ERROR: FVA_nearestFrequency: No Solution.
ERROR: The command was not executed.
ERROR: +1>> variable modify variable=.mdi.ErrNo
int=(eval(FVA_Solve(.aaa.FVA_1)))
ERROR: ---------------------------------------------------------------------

The function, FVA_Solve, did not execute.

41676

The default font size change in ADAMS/View caused text to be truncated in certain dialog boxes. Systems running lower resolutions did not have this problem, but those running higher resolutions did.

41887

If you attempted to load the ADAMS/Car Ride plugin, and ADAMS/Car Ride was not installed, the application crashed. This has been resolved.

42560

The identification method for the hydrobushing (formulation created by Dr. Weber at Audi) has been implemented in ADAMS/Car Ride.

43542

The component analysis number was not reported correctly when running multiple analyses. After each analysis, the message window displayed "Starting analysis #1 of component model," regardless of the analysis number. This has been corrected.

43764

Four-post analyses failed if the template did not contain the name 'jo[lr]rev_spindle_upright' for the revolute joint between hub carrier and hub. The macro was modified so that if standard modeling in the ADAMS/Car templates is not followed (that is, no JO[lr]rev_spindle_upright joints are found under the assembly), then motions are not used to constrain the revolute degree of freedom. Instead, fixed joints are applied.

43767

An error running a four-post analysis occurred when the assembly did not use groups for driveline components.

The macro now detects the existence of both the parameter variable and the corresponding groups. If one does not exist, the step of deactivating the driveline is skipped, and the an alert message is not displayed.

In addition, the ADAMS/Car macro mac_sta_dri_act (which deals with driveline activity) has been enhanced so that if the parameter variable exists, but the groups do not, an alert is displayed (rather than trying to modify the groups and generating the error).

44002

Force Sweep component analysis failures have been corrected.

44163

Modifying hydro_bushing in the template builder is not supported. An alert has been added. The hydrobushing is used as a replacement of an ac_bushing.

44205

The common fourpost tire setup macro placed all tires on the left pads. This bug affected all ADAMS/Car Ride four post analyses involving tires, both time and frequency domain analyses.

A syntax error in mac_ari_fou_set_tir_ref_mar.cmd caused the tire reference markers to be placed on the left side pads. The left side input drove both tires; the right side input had no effect. Therefore, when the tires were driven, the rig effectively became a "pitch-plane" rig (there was no roll excitation).

This did not affect analyses where the wheel spindles were driven.