LMS, the engineering innovation company, and the Automotive Business Unit of TNO announced the signing of a partnership agreement for the integration of TNO's Tyre models in the LMS Virtual.Lab Motion simulation software. As a result of the agreement, LMS Virtual.Lab Motion users gain access to accurate and scalable tire models for concept studies, handling simulation, comfort analysis and fatigue prediction. LMS will market and sell the integrated TNO MF-Tyre and MF-SWIFT modeling capabilities as an integral part of LMS Virtual.Lab Motion. The integrated solution has become available with the release of LMS Virtual.Lab Rev 6.

The TNO MF-Tyre and MF-Swift tire models complement the existing tire modeling capabilities in LMS Virtual.Lab and allow users to perform accurate and realistic full vehicle simulation for key attributes like ride & handling, comfort and durability. High-fidelity modeling of tires is the prerequisite to correctly translate the impact of different road surfaces on the vehicle and to realistically simulate the vehicle's driving behavior. The TNO Tyre models can be applied for the dynamic simulation of passenger cars, motorcycles, trucks, industrial vehicles and aircraft landing gear. MF-Tyre is TNO's implementation of the world standard Pacejka Magic Formula tire model. Its semi-empirical approach guarantees accurate handling simulation. MF-Swift is the high frequency extension to the Magic Formula MF-Tyre model, which mainly supports comfort and durability simulation.

Leo Kusters, General Manager of TNO's Automotive Business Unit commented, "A realistic and accurate tire model is an essential tool in the iterative process of modeling, validating and optimizing the vehicle-tire interaction.  The combination of our tire modeling capabilities and the LMS Virtual.Lab Motion simulation software therefore offers a powerful and complete solution to simulate full-vehicle performance. The integrated solution delivers more reliable results, strongly reduces the required modeling iterations and dramatically reduces design processes."

Willy Bakkers, Vice-President and General Manager of the LMS CAE Division, concluded: "The partnership with TNO Automotive represents an important additional strength for our dynamic motion simulation solution. The tight integration of the TNO Tyre models in LMS Virtual.Lab Motion provides leading capabilities to realistically account for the contact of the vehicle with the road in the most diverse and extreme driving conditions."