China's better car manufacturers
Dongfeng Nissan is an automobile manufacturer that understands consumer needs. Its success is partly due to formulating strategies based on the actual situation of the company itself, while establishing other strong automotive cooperation alliances. Nissan Chairman Gon Carlos bluntly stated that the well-known one may be the Renault Nissan alliance. But Renault Nissan is not the alliance that makes headlines. The joint venture of the group, Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company, is beginning to replicate the same miracle in the Chinese market, especially in the fields of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and urban multi-purpose vehicles (CUVs).

In fact, SUVs are currently the growth factor in the Chinese automotive marketmoreThe field of fast car models. In 2010, the growth rate of SUV sales exceeded that of other passenger cars. Despite continuous growth, 29% of car sales in 2015 came from the SUV market. For global car manufacturers, it is indeed good news that affluent Chinese families may choose SUVs as their family sedans in the coming years. And surprisingly, Chinese domestic brand cars are beginning to dominate the top ten SUV sales market. This also means that the Chinese automotive industry has truly set sail.

The Dongfeng Nissan Qashqai is the first model produced in China based on the Renault Nissan platform, utilizing efficient engineering design worldwide. In addition, the Dongfeng Nissan Qashqai has advanced features favored by Chinese consumers, including active comfort control, active engine braking, and active tracking control to help drivers and passengers improve ride comfort. The Chinese model is so successful that the company believes it is necessary to develop more models, and the Dongfeng Nissan Technology Center can provide research and development assistance.

Create a local brand
At Dongfeng Nissan Technology Center, South ChinamoreA large passenger car technology center is developing a vehicle with high-quality handling stability and ride comfort. Through cooperation with suppliers and other Nissan R&D centers, Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company's technology center continuously introduces updated technologies and models, which have high reliability and are suitable for the driving pleasure of Chinese consumers.

In order to stay ahead of the market, Dongfeng Nissan launched its joint venture independent brand Qichen in 2010. Today, the Qichen brand offers a complete product line, such as the E30, similar to the Nissan Leaf, and more recently, the Qichen T90, which was unveiled at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2016. The image of Qichen T90 as the new flagship of sports cars evokes the feeling of BMW 6.

I hope Qichen can become a more popular mainstream brand among consumers and continue to create a beautiful and high-quality automotive life for them, "said Wu Liangliang, a vehicle dynamics simulation engineer at Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle Company's Technical Center.

The development of China's automobile industry is very fast, and the growth of domestic brands is also very fast, just like Qichen, "Wu Mingliang explained. Qichen is an independently developed brand that we have launched based on the characteristics of the Chinese market. We need to maintain our advantage in the fierce and rapidly developing competitive environment and develop more competitive and attractive Qichen new models. This is our daily challenge

The Challenge of Vehicle Dynamics
The Dongfeng Nissan team has chosen to focus on improving dynamic performance, including accelerating performance analysis and improving model and computational accuracy.

Previously, most of the development work for our car models was completed in Japan, "said Wu Liangliang." A few years ago, we decided to focus on launching the joint venture independent brand Qichen in the Chinese market. We need CAE technology to accelerate the development of our products. We choose LMS engineering services to help us improve our simulation capabilities and quickly establish vehicle dynamics simulation analysis capabilities. We need to cooperate with excellent suppliers in the industry to receive better technical support and services in the later stage, so that we can achieve success in the next generation of car modelsmoreGood technology and performance. ”

Updated vehicle development
A vehicle project closer to the technology center is developed based on the popular Nissan Kickstarter platform. Dongfeng Nissan team utilizes LMS Virutal. Lab ™ Motion software is used to simulate the stability and comfort of manipulation. The fatigue analysis of the entire vehicle was conducted using LMS Virtual. Lab Durability software and LMS Virtual. Lab Motion TWR software with time-domain waveform reproduction (TWR) technology. Use LMS Tecware software to process time-domain and frequency-domain test data.

Other teams utilize LMS Virtual. Lab NVH solution for vibration and noise simulation, and LMS Virtual. Lab Acoustics for acoustic simulation analysis.

Our goal is to improve the performance of the new Qichen, "Wu Mingliang added." To achieve this, our team focuses on dynamic simulation. We are committed to bringing customers trustworthy technology and products that can bring a pleasant driving experience

High quality dynamic simulation
Vehicle dynamics performance is one of the main aspects determining the quality of a car. When developing a car, engineers must strike a balance between conflicting performance factors. A large number of factors that affect the comfort and handling of a car should be considered, such as power, stability, flexibility, and control. However, at the same time, these factors must be considered in conjunction with high levels of ride comfort and low levels of road noise.moreImportantly, the integration of active control systems is increasingly adding more complexity to this challenging task.

The LMS engineering service team helps Dongfeng Nissan integrate advanced dynamic solutions. Throughout the entire process from conceptual design to optimized design, the handling, fatigue durability, and NVH performance of the vehicle must be developed in parallel, which is crucial.

Moreover, the engineering design decisions related to suspension and chassis in the early stage will affect the multi-attribute balance of ride comfort and handling. In addition, LMS provides a scalable vehicle handling stability simulation platform to simulate detailed multi-body models of components, actuators, and functional models of the vehicle itself.

We discussed many issues regarding LMS dynamic simulation solutions. In just four years, using LMS Virtual. Lab Motion and Driving Dynamics multi-body simulation software, our dynamic simulation experience has grown from scratch to a highly competitive technological level. ”Wu Mingliang said.

In order to improve the ride comfort and handling of the new Qichen model to meet the needs of the Chinese market, the R&D team conducted testing and benchmarking research using Nissan's FAW as the benchmark car. The testing includes vehicle road leveling and handling tests, as well as independent chassis K&C testing. Based on the performance data of benchmark cars, the R&D team has set improvement goals.

After setting the goal, the R&D team began using LMS Virtual. Lab Motion to build a vehicle model, with both front and rear suspensions containing certain flexible bodies, to study the handling stability of the vehicle. After setting the parameters, the R&D team used the LMS Virtual. Lab Motion vehicle dynamics solution to conduct a simulation analysis of the overall ride comfort of the vehicle. Verify the results of this multi-body simulation analysis with the test results. On this basis, engineers can adjust suspension parameters to meet the requirements of performance improvement. Overall, with these steps, the R&D team has improved the levelness and maneuverability of the new Qichen model through simulation.

By utilizing LMS vehicle dynamics simulation solutions, we can improve the handling, comfort, and safety of the suspension and the entire vehicle. ”Wu Mingliang added, "Today, in the digital development stage, we can conduct high-quality dynamic simulations ourselves and ensure the benchmarking accuracy between simulation and actual measurement results

LMS engineering services have successfully helped us improve our research and development capabilities, "said Wu Mingliang." It is impossible for other software vendors to achieve this. The LMS solution is fully integrated into our entire product development process, from market positioning, to goal setting, to testing and verification. We can develop excellent dynamic performance and create better new products for our customers, such as the new Chery T90 and other exciting new models in the future