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How do you calibrate a rolling road?

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 4:27 pm
by wazza
I was asked this at work the other week.
One of the guys suggested that you get a horse to stand on the rollers and get it up to a gallop :lol: :lol: :lol:

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 6:16 pm
by johneroberts
still sounds funny paul :D
but how do they calibrate it?
cheers
jr

Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2004 6:50 pm
by simple1
And I thought Thursday was April Fools day :bash:
:thumbs:

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:31 pm
by Ryan_s3
Load cell types use a known weight on a known lever arm length to apply
a known torque to the arm that depresses the load cell itself. The load
arm is then either adjusted in length or the cells electronics tweaked
to calibrate. If you are a lateral thinker, then yes, this means results
are easily fiddled .
answer from my tuner;
You have 2 different types of chassis dynos:
1) Load Cell dynos
2) Inertia dynos
The latter are not normally as accurate as load-cell dynos.
You use a load hung from a long arm, at 90 degrees, and
this will apply a set load/torque to the rollers. Ideally, we want to
put 10 lb/ft of torque into the roller. So, if we use an arm that is
3.33ft in length, and hang a 3lb weight from it, we have 10lb/ft of
torque generated. The output of the load cell is then measured to
ensure that the electronics are perfectly calibrated to the
mechanical side of things.
Now, the dyno software will have 2 main inputs to measure everything
we need for power:
1) Load (as measured by the load cell)
2) Roller speed (equivalent to our engine speed)

By knowing these 2 values, the dyno can then work out power from the
torque measured, etc, etc, etc.

There are MANY variables that can be changed on such dynos to give
different readings, and in the UK a great number of rolling road
centres give "optimistic" figures, as this is generally what the
public want to see, but then it causes issues when you take the same
car to a more "pessimistic" dyno and wonder where the power went.

bit of a chopped down reply because it was rather long..regards Ryan

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:29 pm
by simple1
I prefer the first version, although the second is probably far more accurate :thumb:

Re: How do you calibrate a rolling road?

Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2005 8:34 pm
by Louis
biturbo wrote:I was asked this at work the other week.
One of the guys suggested that you get a horse to stand on the rollers and get it up to a gallop :lol: :lol: :lol:
Then you "must" Check Linearity at "walk, trott and canter.

Re: How do you calibrate a rolling road?

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:46 am
by simple1
Louis wrote:[ Linearity .
To me that would imply tracking.........can you get four hoof alignment???????????? :shock:

RE: Re: How do you calibrate a rolling road?

Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 1:45 pm
by Louis
Neigh. All that horse power could lead to quite heavy Emissions though :oops:
Who has the most accurate dyno? Just out of interest.