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Door slam test is one of the important durability tests in door design and development. Door requires to meet certain performance requirements like it should close properly (no metal to metal contact), there should not be any leakage, and closing operation should be smooth & with minimal effort and it should survive the life of the vehicle. Virtual simulation of door slam test, correlation with physical test results and effect of various parameters like seals stiffness are demonstrated in this study. Slam Analysis was carried out in LS-Dyna solver before physical test. This not only helped in avoiding initial structural design flaws, but also helped us in deciding door latch position, effect of mass distribution in the door and study of force distribution between primary seal, secondary seal and door latch. Primary and secondary seals played a critical role in the analysis. An intended length of both the seals was tested first to get its stiffness curve.

The magnitude of door closing force is important in vehicle NVH characters, and in most case, it is not fully studied by computer aided engineering (CAE) in an early developing stage. The research took a heavy-duty truck as the study object and used Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) method with dynamic mesh to analyze the flow field of the cabin during door closing process. The change trend of pressure with time was obtained, and the influence of different factors was studied. The experiments were conducted to verify the results. Results show that the velocity of closing door and the size of relief holes have a significant influence on cabin interior pressure, and greater velocity leads to larger the pressure in cabin. The initial angle of the door affects interior pressure less comparing with the velocity of closing door. The interior pressure could be reduced effectively with the method of decreasing the velocity of closing door and increasing the size of relief holes.

A vital contribution for the development of an environmental friendly society is improved energy efficiency in public transport systems. Increased electrification of these systems is essential to achieve the high objectives stated. Since the operating range of an electrical vehicle is heavily influenced of the available energy, which primarily is used for propulsion and thermal passenger comfort, all heat losses in the vehicle systems must be minimized. Especially for urban buses, the unwanted heat losses through open doors while passengers are boarding, have to be controlled. These energy fluxes are due to the large temperature gradients generated between in- and outdoor conditions and to install air-walls in the door opening areas have turned out to be a promising technical solution. Based on air-wall technologies used for climate control in buildings, this paper presents an experimental investigation on the reduction of heat losses in the door opening of urban buses.

The objective of this project was to provide pertinent information on the performance of refrigeration and heating transportation units to help fleets make decisions that will improve efficiency and increase productivity. To achieve this objective, tests were designed to measure the performance of selected refrigeration and heating units, mounted on refrigerated and heated van semitrailers. Cooling and freezing tests were carried out in summer conditions while heating tests were carried out in winter conditions, for various temperature settings. Two fundamental approaches were considered: the design of the refrigerated or heated trailer and the temperature setting of the refrigeration or heating unit. For cooling and freezing tests, the fuel consumption comparison between similar trailer models of different ages showed that newer units performed better than older ones.

Individuals in the United States consume twice as much energy as those in any other region. Solitary workday commutes in light vehicles are the leading reason for this difference. An electric vehicle design is proposed to help catalyze more social, higher occupancy, commuting habits - through application of existing technology. Performance criteria are: 1) attract passengers to the suburban front yard at 6:30 AM, 2) match market leading crash test performance, cargo capability, and sense of freedom, and 3) deliver easier parking, better acoustics and better passenger mile efficiency. A vehicle as a rolling event venue determines a large windscreen, side-by-side upright seating arrangements, and acoustic excellence -an experience where there are only good seats. These requirements force a decision to close the wake along a vertical line to form a narrow wake. The chassis is platform batteries with dual motor electric rear drive and undetermined front drive.

A key problem of designing a light off-road vehicle with separate frame construction is to improve its torsional characteristic, which has a significant influence on the performance of the vehicle. Inevitably, a certain distortion of the body would be produced by the vibration and impact passing from the road. In present research, an analysis model of light off-road vehicle is established based on the theories and methods of finite element (FEM). The static stiffness of the body is simulated and the deformation of openings on the body, mainly the windows and the doors of the vehicle is studied. On the working conditions of torsion and braking combination, torsion and cornering combination, diagonal dangling, ultimate torsion of unilateral wheels and diagonal wheels, the static strength of separate frame construction is studied as well. The stress concentration regions are obtained according to the results of simulation.

A Door Control System is being used for controlling doors in buses running in urban/suburban areas as a part of safety requirement and to protect the passengers. The opening and closing of the doors will be in logical sequence depending upon the driver input, vehicle speed and the emergency conditions. To achieve this logic the door control system consists of an ECU, pneumatic valves, pressure sensors and switches. To predict the performance of this system under various operating conditions, the entire system is being modeled in one of the commercially available multi-domain physical modeling software employing bond graph technique and lumped system and the performance is predicted. This paper deals with the modeling and simulation of entire Door Control System.

Design of body structures for commercial vehicles differs significantly from automotive due to government, design and usage requirements. Specifically, heavy truck doors are not required to meet side impact requirements due to their height off the ground as compared to automobiles. However, heavy truck doors are subjected to higher loads, longer life, and cannot experience permanent deformation from overload events. Aluminum has been used intensively in commercial vehicle doors and cab structures for over 50 years by several different manufacturers in North America. It has been only in the last few years that aluminum has appeared in automotive door structures other than in high-end luxury vehicles. Commercial vehicle customers are expecting the same features found in premium automobiles resulting in opportunities to learn from each other's designs. In order to optimize the strength and weight of a commercial vehicle door, a new aluminum intensive structure was developed.

The bake hardening effect depends on three parameters i.e. pre-straining, paint baking temperature and paint baking time. The combined effect of all these parameters results into the increase in yield strength, called the “baking effect”. This paper explains the individual effects of these parameters on the baking value. Tensile test were carried out for the 495 samples baked at baking temperature from 140°C to 250°C with differential baking time of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes and differential pre-straining of 2%, 3% and 5%. The differences of yield strength between the unbaked and baked sample were calculated and the increase in yield strength was noted. After these laboratory trials 800 numbers of door outer panels of a small truck were formed and finish painted. The increment in yield strength after component forming and painting was determined by taking tensile samples from three different locations of 5 painted doors.

A direct method is developed for designing a vehicle fuel filler door with torsional spring. The design parameters include the door's geometrical parameters and spring dimensions. The design requirements are based on the finger force curve during closing and opening, and the bending stress in the spring. An example is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method.

The main element of dimensional management is specification cascading where customer requirements are translated into dimensional targets. It also includes GD&T, datum strategy, and tolerance optimization. These elements can only be effective if all of the work is done concurrently among various disciplines of an organization that have a stake in the fit, finish, and performance of the final product. When setting static dimensional goals during product development, vehicle performance targets and dynamic goals have to be defined simultaneously. One example is of the final door appearance for gaps and flushness on an automotive body from static standpoint. The wind-noise and door flutter are examples of dynamic performance goals. It becomes very costly to fix static fit and finish issues caused by the dynamic state of the vehicle late into the product development cycle or at the customer locations.

The need to reduce the injury to pedestrians that are run over or pinned beneath a bus is an ongoing concern for transit authorities and other operators. Occasionally, a pedestrian will be run over by the right rear wheel while exiting the rear door. This accident occurs in various scenarios such as when people exit the bus and become entangled in the door grab bars, or when they fall between the curb and the bus while it approaches or departs. With all scenarios, the S-1 Gard acts similar to a cow catcher, pushing the fallen pedestrian out and away from the rear tire. This paper will: outline various incident scenarios, evaluate the S-1 Gard's performance in a city environment, review installation of the guard as well as its maintenance requirements. The purpose of this paper is to bring to the attention of transit authorities and shuttle operators the overall value of this device.

An automatically deployed fold-down step has been developed for use on fire apparatus cabs. The step operates pneumatically as the cab doors are opened. This feature optimizes the ergonomics of cab entry while maximizing the interior space available for occupants and equipment.

In the past, all known, compact pickup truck structures have been limited to the use of two doors to allow for access to the interior regions of the cab. This paper will address the issue of locating a side access panel to an existing vehicle structure, the development criteria used for the panel hinges, the integration of the safety belt system and the advantages of the interior trim attachment methods. Examination will include a review of specific design considerations used to meet governmental and consumer requirements.

The J I Case Company recently introduced a new series of Maxxum tractors (Figure 1). The product line now offers 60, 67, 75, and 84 PTO kW versions. The all new 84 kW version features a new fuel delivery system providing both greater power and reduced exhaust emissions. The powertrain also features increased capacity components required for the reliability of the increased power, 84 kW model. The new series incorporates numerous customer requested improvements of the 5100 Series, including increased comfort, convenience, and visibility features such as swivel seat, in-cab remote coupler flow controls, fender mounted hitch controls and all glass doors.

Automotive interiors consist of sandwich type components (e.g., instrument panel, door trim, headliner); hard trim (e.g., pillar trim) and functional solid components (e.g., load floor, seat backs, etc.) The intermaterials competition among new processes for fabricating these 3 types of components were described previously (1)*. This paper examines new developments specifically in the area of skin materials used for the sandwich type interior trim components.

Machine vision technology is a tool being utilized in the new GMT-400 pickup truck Body Shops for process monitoring and control. These real-time Machine Vision Dimensional Gauging systems monitor 100% of the production's critical build features such as door and window openings, hinge locations, and fender mounting brackets, Traditional gauges typically can provide data on only a small sample of production −1% or less. Correlating the machine vision systems to master gauges allows accurate data to be collected on every job as it is being built. This complete dimensional control data provides information for process monitoring as well as a means to detect tooling adjustment requirements and the ability to detect build problems, even if they occur intermittently. Several methods of performing this correlation have been investigated, with the goal being to define a correlation procedure that works well in the plant environment.

The paper describes the development and application of a relatively fine mesh model, analysed using MSC NASTRAN, to predict absolute values of deflections which correlated closely to the mean measured deflections of the actual door. The model has proved valuable in identifying and correcting at the pre-production stage the problem of the front door fit conditions. The paper then discusses the application of the model for structural analysis using strain energy techniques. The resulting design gives 21% reduction in deflection and stress at critical points with only 3% increase in mass. This contributed to significant savings in proto-type testing and in addition, provided more efficient use of the material in the structure.

A unique shuttle bus is being constructed by Minicars, Inc., and Walter Vetter Karosserie-werk for Denver’s Transitway/Mall. The bus is designed for frequent stop, low speed service in a downtown pedestrian environment. It features a very low floor and multiple wide doors for rapid passenger boarding and deboarding. Two versions will be supplied for comparative evalation, a low noise diesel configuration and a battery-electric configuration. Either version can subsequently be converted to the alternative propulsion system.