Environmental testing at Millbrook


As John Proctor the technical and special projects director at Millbrook explained, an integrated and holistic approach to environmental testing is necessary to meet the future needs of the transport industry. At Millbrook, there are the facilities at


the Bedfordshire proving grounds as well as a large chassis dynamometer for commercial vehicles to evaluate noise, vibration and harshness (NVH), plus the Test World cold climate snow and ice proving grounds in Finland. I recently spoke to Jukka Antila and


Andy Beach, respectively technical director and business development director at Test World, about the latest changes that have taken place there. According to Antila, the latest addition


Capacity \\\ When asked about the capacity requirements


for the new facility, Proctor explains that hy- drogen vehicle testing and battery heavy duty vehicle integration testing, plus petrochemi- cal industry requirements, are the main ca- pacity drivers, with more needed in the future for fuel cell testing for bus and niche vehicles. Millbrook currently has the two VTEC facil-


ities available with the future of VTEC 1 com- ing under review at a later stage. Availability of suitably qualified and expe-


rienced engineers is something Millbrook takes very seriously so that as the complex- ity of the automotive industry increases, shortages of experienced engineers in such areas as hydrogen fuel cells, EVs and connec- tivity won’t start to bite. Millbrook has been investing in graduate and undergraduate schemes as well as developing and investing in its existing staff to fulfil future needs. “The supply of new engineers needs to re- flect the changes happening in the industry. We still need good, strong basic engineering skills, plus specialist knowledge in diagnos- tics, data analysis and new technologies. We need a combination of all of these,” Proctor concludes. C&VT


to the organisation’s armoury of test equipment is the ASTM Traction truck, designed for testing tyres according to the ASTM 1805 standard for single wheel driving traction in a straight line on snow- covered surfaces. Such surfaces are assured at the Ivalo facility, where testing can take place in


the summer on the large indoor ice- and snow-covered tracks. Such year-round access enables tyre and powertrain development activities to continue without relying on seasonal availability. When asked about how these facilities


are used, Beach explained that tyre manufacturers can either use the facilities themselves or provide test specifications to Test World. In addition to tyres, the facilities also provide an opportunity to perform real world climatic evaluations. “We can assess how fluids, lubricants


etc react to severe climatic conditions in objective and subjective tests,” he says. Engineers are able to validate simulation operations in chambers and on rolling roads, for example testing that regenerative braking on EVs does not lock the wheels when lifting the throttle. According to Beach, more borderline cases can be tested using simulation and then verified if necessary on test tracks. “Engineers can map out a real world


test to validate the key parts of their simulation results,” he concludes.


Simulation results can be validated all year at indoor winter testing facilities in northern Finland 2021 /// Climatic & Vibration Testing \\\ 5


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