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In modern engine design, downsizing and reducing weight while still providing an increased amount of power has been a general trend in recent decades. Traditionally, an engine design with superior NVH performance usually comes with a heavier, thus sturdier structure. Therefore, modern engine design requires that NVH be considered in the very early design stage to avoid modifications of engine structure at the last minute, when very few changes can be made. NVH design optimization of engine components has become more practical due to the development of computer software and hardware. However, there is still a need for smarter algorithms to draw a direct relationship between the design and the radiated sound power. At the moment, techniques based on modal acoustic transfer vectors (MATVs) have gained popularity in design optimization for their good performance in sound pressure prediction.

Development pace of new embedded projects often requires usage of model-based design process (MBD). More individuals start using MBD without previous experience with tools and new processes. Matlab/Simulink/Stateflow is a common tool that is used in control applications in automotive and airspace industries. Because of its complexity, the tool has a steep learning curve. Therefore, it is vitally important to set the MBD environment that allows persons to develop real-life projects even without a deep knowledge of the tool. The quality of the product should not be compromised and the development time should not be extended due to the initial lack of knowledge of the tool by the developers. The shifting to MBD leads to changes of roles and responsibilities of algorithm designers and software implementers. This shift is due to ability of creating of efficient production code by code generators.

EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future (EcoCAR) is North America's premier collegiate automotive engineering competition, challenging students with systems-level advanced powertrain design and integration. The three-year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series is organized by Argonne National Laboratory, headline sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), and sponsored by more than 28 industry and government leaders. Fifteen university teams from across North America are challenged to reduce the environmental impact of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu by redesigning the vehicle powertrain without compromising performance, safety, or consumer acceptability. During the three-year program, EcoCAR teams follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process (VDP) modeled after GM's own VDP. The VDP serves as a roadmap for the engineering process of designing, building and refining advanced technology vehicles.

This paper presents hydraulic topographies using a network of valves to achieve better energy efficiency, reliability, and performance. The Topography with Integrated Energy Recovery (TIER) system allows the valves and actuators to reconfigure so that flow from assistive loads on actuators can be used to move actuators with resistive loads. Many variations are possible, including using multiple valves with either a single pump/motor or with multiple pump/motors. When multiple pump/motors are used, units of different displacements can be chosen such that units are controlled to minimize time operating at low displacement, thus increasing overall system efficiency. Other variations include configurations allowing open loop or closed loop pump/motors to be used, the use of fixed displacement pump/motors, or the ability to store energy in an accumulator. This paper gives a system level overview and summarizes the hydraulic systems using the TIER approach.

The Indiana Space Grant Consortium is one of 52 members of the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program (“Space Grant”), which was initiated by NASA in 1988. Space Grant is designed to be a source of NASA-related information, awards, and programs to enhance education, outreach, and workforce development for the United States. Based on the land grant model of public university education, Space Grant seeks to spread the vision of NASA to increase science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) awareness; NASA-related education; workforce development; outreach and research activities. This paper describes the evolution of these activities in Indiana.

The FCC allocated the 5.9 GHz spectrum to enhance the safety and productivity of the nations transportation system. Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) is a medium range wireless communication protocol that supports vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-roadside, and roadside-to-vehicle communication. It enables both public safety and licensed private transactions. DSRC contrasts cellular and Wi-Fi by providing fast acquisition, low latency communication in a relatively close communication range. IEEE is developing the Wireless Access in Vehicular Environment (WAVE) communication standards to provide the groundwork for DSRC and enable seamless, interoperable services. The WAVE architecture includes IEEE P1609.1 (Application layer), IEEE P1609.2 (Security layer), IEEE P1609.3 (Network layer), IEEE P1609.4 (Upper MAC Layer), and IEEE 802.11p (Lower MAC and Physical layers).

Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) is an initiative of the US Department of Transportation to provide communications among vehicles and between vehicles and roadside infrastructure in order to increase the safety and productivity of transportation systems. It makes use of but is not restricted to the 5.9 GHz Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) spectrum. There are 3 major categories of applications for VII - Highway Safety, Vehicular Mobility, and Consumer & Commercial Services. There are currently approximately 42,000 traffic fatalities a year in the United States. Reducing deaths, injuries and property damage is of the highest priority in the development of VII applications. Electronic Brake Warning, Signal Phase and Timing, and Collision Detection are among the applications dedicated to improving highway safety. Increasing traffic volume is outpacing the addition of new roadway capacity, resulting in increasing delays, congestion and frustration.

Audio playbacks are mechanisms which read data from a storage medium and produce commands and signals which an audio system turns into music. Playbacks are constantly changed to meet market demands, requiring that the control software be updated quickly and efficiently. This paper reviews a 12 month project using the MATLAB/Simulink/Stateflow environment for model-based development, system simulation, autocode generation, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) verification for playbacks which read music CDs or MP3 disks. Our team began with a “clean slate” approach to playback architecture, and demonstrated working units running production-ready code. This modular, layered architecture enables rapid development and verification of new playback mechanisms, thereby reducing the time needed to evaluate playback mechanisms and integrate into a complete infotainment system.

The On-line Project Information System (OPIS) is a LAMP-based (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) system being developed at NASA Ames Research Center to improve Agency information transfer and data availability, largely for improvement of system analysis and engineering. The tool will enable users to investigate NASA technology development efforts, connect with experts, and access technology development data. OPIS is currently being developed for NASA's Exploration Life Support (ELS) Project. Within OPIS, NASA ELS Managers assign projects to Principal Investigators (PI), track responsible individuals and institutions, and designate reporting assignments. Each PI populates a “Project Page” with a project overview, team member information, files, citations, and images. PI's may also delegate on-line report viewing and editing privileges to specific team members. Users can browse or search for project and member information.

Since the end of the 1990s, model-based development processes have increasingly been adopted for the development of automotive embedded control software. One of the main goals of this approach is a reduction of project development time. This reduction is achieved through the use of executable modeling and autocoding. Due to the current constraints for a majority of embedded controllers on microprocessor memory and throughput, efficient production-quality code can not be generated from an executable model with the push of a button. The autocoding process requires manual setting of the software properties for the model's blocks and components by a software professional. Once the code is generated, code verification is needed. Although in many cases autocode generation and verification stages take less time to execute as compared to handcoding techniques, they still require substantial time to perform.

Model-based systems development relies upon the concept of an executable specification. A survey of published literature shows a wide range of definitions for executable specifications [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10]. In this paper, we attempt to codify the essential starting elements for a complete executable specification-based design flow. A complete executable specification that includes a functional model as well as test cases, in addition to a traditional prose document, is needed to transfer requirements from a customer to a supplier, or from a systems engineer to electrical hardware and software engineers. In the complete form demonstrated here, sub-components of a functionally-decomposed system manifest as modular reuse blocks suitable for publication in functional libraries. The overarching definition provided by product architecture and by software architecture must also be harmoniously integrated with design and implementation.

Most of the gaseous contaminants generated inside ALS (Advanced Life Support) cabins can be degraded to some degree by microbial degradation in a biofilter. The entry of biofiltration techniques into ALS will most likely involve integration with existing physico-chemical methods. However, in this study, cabin air quality treated by only biofiltration was predicted using the one-box and biofiltration models. Based on BVAD (Baseline Values and Assumptions Document) and SMAC (Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations), ammonia and carbon monoxide will be the critical compounds for biofilter design and control. Experimentation is needed to identify the pertinent microbial parameters and removal efficiency of carbon monoxide and to validate the results of this preliminary investigation.

Resource recovery, including that of urine water extraction, is one of the most crucial aspects of long-term life support in interplanetary space travel. This paper will consequently examine an innovative approach to processing raw, undiluted urine based on low-temperature freezing. This strategy is uniquely different from NASA's current emphasis on either ‘integrated’ (co-treatment of mixed urine, grey, and condensate waters) or ‘high-temperature’ (i.e., VCD [vapor compression distillation] or VPCAR [vapor phase catalytic ammonia removal]) processing strategies, whereby this liquid freeze-thaw (LiFT) procedure would avoid both chemical and microbial cross-contamination concerns while at the same time securing highly desirable reductions in likely ESM levels.

The application of biological treatment to solid waste is very promising to facilitate recycling of water, carbon, and nutrients and to reduce the resupply needs of long-term crewed space missions. Degradation of biodegradable solid wastes generated during such a mission is under investigation as part of the NASA Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) at Purdue University. Processing in the solids thermophilic aerobic reactor (STAR) involves the use of high temperature micro-aerobic slurry conditions to degrade solid wastes, enabling the recycling of water, carbon, and nutrients for further downstream uses. Related research presently underway includes technical development and optimization of STAR operations as well as a complementary evaluation of post-STAR processing for gas-stream purification, water recovery by condensate purification, and residuals utilization for both mushroom growth media and nutritional support for fish growth.

This paper reviews some applications of lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM) to compute multiphase flows. The method is based on the solution of a kinetic equation which describes the evolution of the distribution of the population of particles whose collective behavior reproduces fluid behavior. The distribution is modified by particle streaming and collisions on a lattice. Modeling of physics at a mesoscopic level enables LBM to naturally incorporate physical properties needed to compute complex flows. In multiphase flows, the surface tension and phase segregation are incorporated by considering intermolecular attraction forces. Furthermore, the solution of the kinetic equations representing linear advection and collision, in which non-linearity is lumped locally, makes it parallelizable with relative ease. In this paper, a brief review of the lattice Boltzmann method relevant to engine sprays will be presented.

Entertainment is THE killer application of consumer electronics in vehicles. Ever since the first AM vacuum tube radio was factory installed in a luxury vehicle in the early 1930s, entertainment has led the introduction of consumer electronics (CE) in the transportation industry. For example, over the last 68 years the auto industry has adopted FM reception; transistor radios; electronic tuning; cassette and CD playbacks; and multi-speaker, multi-channel-amplifier premium audio systems. During the “technology bubble” period (1998-2001), many industry experts predicted the next CE “killer app” in vehicles to be mobile Internet. Although mobile Internet is still a dream, significant new entertainment applications such as rear seat DVD video, satellite digital audio broadcast (XM & Sirius), and MP3 radio have exploded in the automotive and commercial vehicle markets.

Solids thermophilic aerobic reactor (STAR) processing of biodegradable solid waste residuals uses high temperature conditions to reduce waste volume, inactivate pathogens, and render products that may enter the recycle system by providing plant substrate, fish food, and mushroom growth medium. The STAR process recovers and enables the reuse of nutrients, water, and carbon. During the time of this study, STAR was operated at a 3% solids loading rate, with an 11-day retention time at a temperature range of 50-55°C. This document presents the following details: a the evolution to date of the STAR reactor b review of reactor operation and analytical methods c a synopsis of the performance results and related discussion, and d a synopsis of future goals relative to this project's associated research roadmap.

Wheat is a candidate crop for the Advanced Life Support (ALS) system, and cereal grains and their products will be included on long-term space missions beyond low earth orbit. While the exact supply scenario has yet to be determined, some type of post-processing of these grains must occur if they are shipped as bulk ingredients or grown on site for use in foods. Understanding the requirements for processing grains in space is essential for incorporating the process into the ALS food system. The ESM metric developed by NASA describes and compares individual system impact on a closed system in terms of a single parameter, mass. The objective of this study was to compare the impact of grain mill type on the ESM of producing yeast and flat breads. Hard red spring wheat berries were ground using a Brabender Quadrumat Jr. or the Kitchen-Aid grain mill attachment (both are proposed post-harvest technologies for the ALS system) to produce white and whole wheat flour, respectively.

A procedure for simulating the dynamics of agricultural and forestry machines using mechanical system simulation software is presented. A soil/track interface model including rubber-track and steel-track was introduced as well as equations that can be used to model mechanical and hydraulic power trains commonly found in tracked vehicles. Two rubber-tracked vehicles (agricultural tractors) and two steel-tracked machines (forestry vehicles) were simulated to illustrate the technique, and some analysis results are presented. The examples given in this paper are based on the author’s research over the past several years.

Throughout the industry, organizations struggle with the task of implementing effective human factors programs aimed at reducing maintenance errors. Almost universally, many barriers have frustrated these efforts. In 1998 and 1999, the National Transportation Safety Board sponsored two workshops designed at identifying barriers to the implementation of human factors programs and to explore what was working and what was not working among the many industry efforts. This paper explores the findings of these workshops. In addition, it will report findings of Purdue University studies that reveal a rapid deterioration of even the most successful human factors programs. The research findings disclose several “disconnects” within most organizations which rapidly negate the positive effects of successful human factors and error management training and nullify many proactive human factors programs.