The Department of Mechanical, Nuclear and Industrial Engineering is involved in many research activities in the field of road vehicles, in co-operation with some of the main national vehicles companies. Research themes concern both 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles and are focused on several design and dynamic aspects.
Investigation methodologies are based on experiments, carried out using standard and ad hoc developed testing rigs and are supported by FEM and Multibody simulations. Some of recent automotive research topics are summarised below:
• Analysis of vibrations and acoustic noise produced by the engage of the clutch system, based both on test bench and real cars;
• Comfort analysis of automotive speed gear drive; by using a test bench for automatic gear manoeuvre, objective handling parameters for the gear drive can be obtained;
• Development of models for the dynamic analysis and simulation of race cars.
Recent researches in the two-wheeled vehicles field are described in the following:
• Development and qualification of some of the traditional test procedures (i.e. motorscooter drop testing and fatigue investigation by the roller test bench with obstacles); test procedures are qualified on the basis of experimental investigations, carried out with properly instrumented vehicles and also supported by advanced simulating techniques;
• Analysis of motorscooter ride comfort, based on experimental data and multibody simulation; models of scooter are employed for comfort analysis, with reference to some traditional road profiles; the numerical models are validated on the basis of on board acquired acceleration data;
• Definition of accelerated road test cycles, aimed at shortening the test period for new vehicles; a procedure is employed, based on experimental data acquired during test campaigns, for the evaluation of the fatigue damage of the main components.

Contact person
Prof. E. Vitale E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it