Vehicle testing provided under extreme conditions
Vehicle testing under extreme conditions. What we develop moves you. Vehicles must work perfectly, whatever the climate. As a leading engineering partner to the automotive industry, IAV ensures that drivers can rely on their car at any time and at any place in the world, whether at +40 degrees in the desert or at -40 degrees in the polar regions or on alpine mountains. To this end, engines, components and vehicles undergo thorough testing exposed to all worst-case conditions: extreme cold, extreme heat and extreme altitude.
The calibration engineer
Simon Mühe has been a development engineer at IAV for eight years and calibrates engines. To do so, he takes test cars through maneuvers that a normal car driver also performs: starting, setting off slowly, setting off quickly, in high gear, in low gear, early shifting, late shifting. During the tests, the calibration engineer adjusts various engine parameters with his laptop to optimize emissions and vehicle behavior, while at the same time detecting parts that are not yet working properly under extreme conditions.
“When we adjust something on the laptop, the engine reacts immediately. This means you need to know what you're doing. Entering incorrect parameters can rapidly cause engine damage.”
— Development Engineer Powertrain Mechatronics
Under extreme conditions
Cars are driven not just in moderate climate zones. And so IAV tests and optimizes engines under extreme conditions: in the extreme heat of summer often in Southern Europe, or in the extreme cold of winter and at high altitudes in Northern Europe or the Alps. A cold start that works perfectly in Berlin will often fail at temperatures of -30 degrees below freezing in Northern Sweden. The work that Simon Mühe does ensures that engines start and run perfectly even under extreme conditions.
“Drivers expect their cars to work perfectly in all climatic conditions.”
— Development Engineer Powertrain Mechatronics
From technology demonstrator to volume production
Cars are tested at many development stages, from technology demonstrator through to pilot production. A transmission failing when climbing a steep hill is just one of the usual surprises you have to cope with, says Simon Mühe. The challenge of engine calibration is for the team to continue enhancing the interaction of hardware and software components. At the end, the overall system has to work reliably and fulfill the expectations made by customers and legislators.
“You have to feel and hear what the car's doing.”
— Development Engineer Powertrain Mechatronics
IAV: engineering with experience
Simon Mühe has been involved in many vehicle trials for IAV and seen a great deal. This experience is simply indispensable, particularly for vehicle development under extreme conditions. The aim is to give manufacturers competent advice, detect problems early on and get the best from the software and hardware components, so that in the end, the car going into volume production can be sold hundreds and thousands of times and bring people safely from A to B, regardless of whether they are in Greenland or Australia.
What is it like to work in this field?
Learn more in our employee portrait of
Simon Mühe
