Wind Simulation Device Using Virtual Particles
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current virtual simulation tools for vehicle design lack the capability to effectively simulate wind forces on vehicles, which is essential for testing vehicle control software, leading to incomplete performance evaluation.
Innovation Solution
A wind simulation device that generates virtual wind particles using mesh-free algorithms like Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) or Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) methods, allowing for dynamic simulation of wind forces on virtual vehicles within a defined volume of analysis, reducing computational overhead and improving performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If virtual simulation tools are used for vehicle design, then design space exploration and performance evaluation are enabled, but the capability to simulate wind forces on vehicles is lacking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces virtual wind particles as intermediary elements that mediate between the simulation environment and the vehicle. These particles carry wind force information and interact with the vehicle model to enable wind effect simulation. The particles serve as a bridge that transfers wind force data from the environmental model to the vehicle dynamics model, allowing comprehensive performance evaluation including wind forces.
2Reliability
If mesh-free algorithms like SPH or MPS are used to calculate wind particle paths, then realistic wind simulation is achieved, but computational overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the continuous wind field into discrete virtual wind particles. Each particle independently tracks its path through the environment using mesh-free algorithms like SPH or MPS. This segmentation allows parallel computation of particle trajectories and enables realistic wind simulation while maintaining computational efficiency through distributed processing of individual particle paths rather than solving the entire continuous field.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates virtual copies of wind particles that simulate the physical behavior of wind without requiring full computational complexity of real fluid dynamics. These virtual particles copy the essential characteristics of wind flow (velocity, direction, force) and interact with the vehicle model, providing realistic wind simulation effects while reducing computational overhead compared to full Navier-Stokes solutions.
3Reliability
If the entire virtual environment is analyzed for wind particle presence, then complete wind effects are captured, but computational performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by creating a bounding box around the target vehicle and only analyzing wind particles within this localized region. Instead of evaluating the entire virtual environment, the simulation focuses computational resources on the local area where wind-vehicle interactions occur. This approach maintains accurate wind effect capture for the vehicle while significantly improving computational performance by reducing the analysis domain to only the necessary local region.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure includes a system, method and tangible memory operable to simulate a wind particle. A method may include receiving user input data describing the wind particle. The method may include generating a wind model based on the user input data. The method may include generating a simulation that includes a virtual roadway environment, a virtual wind particle that is configured by the wind model to be variable and dynamic within the virtual roadway environment, a virtual vehicle and a virtualized control software for controlling an operation of the virtual vehicle in the virtual roadway environment and modifying the operation of the virtual vehicle in response to a variable in the simulation. The simulation may be operable to test the virtualized control software and the modifying of the operation of the virtual vehicle in response to the virtual wind particle being the variable in the simulation.