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Noise pollution is a major concern for global automotive industries which propels engineers to evolve new methods to meet passenger comfort and regulatory requirements. The main purpose of an exhaust system in an automotive vehicle is to allow the passage of non-hazardous gases to the atmosphere and reduce the noise generated due to the engine pulsations. The objective of this paper is to propose a Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) approach followed to optimize the muffler for better acoustic performance without compromising on back pressure. Conventionally, muffler design has been an iterative process. It involves repetitive testing to arrive at an optimum design. Muffler has to be designed for better acoustics performance and reduced back pressure which complicates the design process even more.

Fan shroud is one of the critical components in an engine cooling system. It helps in achieving optimum air flow across the heat exchangers. The major challenge is to design a fan shroud which meets noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) requirements without compromising on air flow targets [1]. An improperly designed fan shroud will cause detrimental effects such as undesirable noise and vibration, which will further damage the surrounding components. In current days, multiple simulations and test iterations are carried out in order to optimize its design. The objective of this paper is to provide a design framework to achieve optimized fan shroud that meets NVH requirements in quick turnaround time using Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) approach [2]. The purpose of the Engine cooling system is to maintain the coolant temperature across the vehicle.

The Charge Air Cooler (CAC) is designed to cool the charge air after being boosted by the Turbocharger. In order to maintain the optimum temperature and to further improve the charge air density entering to the engine the CAC is used. This makes the combustion more efficient and better engine performance and fuel economy. The performance of the CAC is highly affected by the plumbing lines which transport the compressed charge air from turbocharger to the intake manifold of the Engine. It consists of tube, hose, duct and resonator. Designing the optimum CAC plumbing lines with lesser pressure drop is the major requirement of the CAC system considering the complex packaging. In such scenarios, one-dimensional (1D) simulation is a good way to compute the pressure drop for faster and economical solution.

An expansion tank is an integral part of an automotive engine cooling system. The primary function of the expansion tank is to allow the thermal expansion of the coolant. The expansion tank will be referred as hot bottle in this paper. In the System level modeling of the engine internal flow, it is imperative to accurately model and characterize the components in the system. It is often challenging to define the hot bottle accurately with limited parameters in the 1D modeling. Currently it is very difficult to optimize the system by testing. Since testing consumes a lot of time and changes in development stage. If the hot bottle component is not defined properly in the system network, then the system flow balancing cannot be predicted accurately. In this paper, the approach of creating a 1D modeling tool for hot bottle flow prediction is discussed and the simulation results are compared with the physical test data.

The performance of the Transmission Oil Cooler (TOC) is influenced significantly by the TOC plumbing lines which transmit the oil from transmission system to the oil cooler and back. Designing the optimum TOC plumbing line with lesser pressure drop is the need of the hour considering the complex nature of the vehicle packaging. Reducing the pressure drop increases the oil flow rate through the transmission which results in optimum performance. Improved transmission efficiency in turn shall improve the engine efficiency and performance. The improvements obtained from increased transmission and engine efficiency shall result in an overall increase in vehicle fuel economy. Optimization solutions are required in the early product development cycle where the components are not readily available and/or are prohibitively expensive to do testing. In such scenarios, one-dimensional (1D) simulations shall be employed to compute the pressure drop for faster and economical solutions.