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In automotive design and development, there are different stages for product design. In this fast changing scenario product design, digital verification of design (CAE), physical validation of the product and launching of the same in short time is important in product development life cycle of any new generation vehicle. This paper proposes a new approach towards development of a green-field platform for commercial vehicles by improving reliability of CAE and thereby reducing the need for prototype testing and hence shortening development cycle and costs - we call it “Hybrid Mule”. This Hybrid Mule has complete design intent under-body and engine-house while upper-body is made of simple representative tubular space frame. FRP skin panels are attached to this space frame to create a safe environment for test-driver. FRP skin also provides early feel of styling in running condition and evaluates basic ergonomics and visibility.

Designing a cabin tilting system for Light Commercial Vehicles using a single torsion bar becomes challenging considering the operator safety and stringent design weight targets. Performance of a good tilting system entirely depends on cabin mass and location of centre of gravity with respect to (w.r.t) to tilting pivot point. Cabin Mass and COG location are very difficult to estimate while designing a new cabin as it is dependent on the maturation of all other cabin aggregates and also the accessories added by the customer. Incorporation design parameter changes like increasing cab tilting angle and increasing torsion bar length, in the later stages of product development, becomes expensive. The objective of this paper is to come up with an optimum design of a single torsion bar tilting employing “Taguchi optimization” for deciding the optimum levels of control factors, which ensures desired performance (i.e tilting effort vs.

Downsizing is one of the crucial activities being performed by every automotive engineering organization. The main aim is to reduce - Weight, CO2 emissions and achieve cost benefit. All this is done without any compromise on performance requirement or rather with optimization of system performance. This paper evaluate one such optimization, where-in radiator assembly with two electric fan is targeted for downsizing for small commercial vehicle application. The present two fan radiator is redesigned with thinner core and use of single fan motor assembly. The performance of the heat exchanger is tested for similar conditions back to back on vehicle and optimized to get the balanced benefit in terms of weight, cooling performance and importantly cost. This all is done without any modification in vehicle interface components except electrical connector for fan. The side members and brackets design is also simplified to achieve maximum weight reduction.

Vehicular accidents are life-threatening and result in fatal casualties in developing country such as India. According to estimates, traffic accidents kill more people in India than diseases like Cancer and AIDS. More than 150,000 people are killed every year in traffic accidents in India, which works out to 400 fatalities a day, far higher than developed auto markets like the U.S., which had logged about 40,000 deaths in 2016. The World Health Organization estimates road accidents cost most countries about 3 per cent of their gross domestic product. India being the fastest growing economy will be the world’s third-largest car market after China and the U.S. by 2020, according to automobile researchers. According to research study most of death cause due to not getting help on time to the injured person. Research has proven that if injured person is not found any option of help then they also lose the power to fight such critical situation due to psychological effect.

Fuel economy is becoming one of the key parameter as it does not only account for the profitability of commercial vehicle owner but also has impact on environment. Fuel economy gets affected from several parameters of engine such as Peak firing pressure, reduction in parasitic losses, volumetric efficiency and thermal efficiency. Compression ratio is one of key design criteria which affects most of the above mentioned parameters, which not only improve fuel efficiency but also results in improvement of emission levels. This paper evaluates the optimization of Compression ratio and study its effect on Engine performance. The parameters investigated in this paper include combustion bowl volume in Piston and Cylinder head gasket thickness as these are major contributing factors affecting clearance volume and in turn the compression ratio of engine. Based on the calculation results, an optimum Compression Ratio for the engine is selected.

There are many environmental issues in India. Air pollution, water pollution, garbage, vibration, noise pollution and pollution of the natural environment are all challenges for India. India has a long way to go to reach environmental quality similar to those enjoyed in developed economies. Pollution remains a major challenge and opportunity for India. The review of trends in farm practices and machinery development suggests that vibration & noise problems are still prevalent in agricultural situations, even though there has been a steady increase in the availability of materials and equipment for vibration & noise control over recent years. Diesel engine is the main source of power for agricultural equipments, such as water pump set, compressor, electric generator and tractor. Even it is one of the sources of vibration & noise in agricultural field. There is reluctance of the agricultural sector to use of vibration & noise control methods.

HVAC system design has an accountability towards acoustic comfort of passengers of a vehicle. Owing to larger cabin volume of a bus, multiple air blowers have to be installed to ensure comfort of passengers. Such multiple blowers produce significant flow induced noise inside the cabin. For commercial success, it becomes essential to predict intensity of such a flow induced noise at very early stages in product development. Conventionally sliding mesh based CFD approach is deployed to predict flow and turbulence noise around each blower. However due to complexity, this method becomes computationally intensive resulting in cost and time inefficiency. Hence it is desirable to innovate around an alternative rapid, reliable prediction method, which ensures quick turnaround of prediction.

In India, around 70 million people travel by public transport buses. With rising air pollution across cities, there is a need to safeguard passengers from inhaling polluted air. Contaminants in such polluted air could be fine to coarse dust (2.5 micron to 100 micron), exhaust gases (oxide of sulphur, nitrogen and carbon), total volatile organic compounds, bacteria and viruses arising out of covid-19 pandemic. Passengers commuting in buses are continuously inhaling air that is re-circulating through the Air Conditioning system (AC) and also comes in contact with multiple co-passengers and touch points. This air potentially carries a high dose of contaminants and inhalation of such air can lead to health issues. Vehicle manufacturers intend to provide clean air inside the vehicle cabin by configuring various Air Purification systems (AP) which reduce air contaminants in the closed space of a cabin.

Commercial electric vehicle air conditioning system keeps occupants comfortable, but at the expense of the energy used from the battery of vehicle. Passengers around the world are increasingly requesting buses with HVAC/AC capabilities. There is a need to optimise current air conditioning systems taking into account packaging, cost, and performance limits due to the rising demand for cooling and heating globally. Major elements contributing to heat ingress are traction motor, front firewall, windshield & side glasses and bus body parts. These elements contribute to the bus’s poor cooling and lack of passenger comfort. This topic refers to the reduction of the heat ingress through usage of different glass technology like IR Cut & solar green glass with different types of coating.

AC system provides the human comfort inside the cabin of a vehicle but at the expense of consumption of energy from the vehicle. On a global perspective for the bus segment, there is an increased demand for cooling in tropical countries. Optimization needs to be done in existing AC systems w.r.t packaging, cost & performance constraints. Major elements contributing to heat ingress are engine hood, front firewall, windshield & side glasses and bus body parts. Due to these reasons inadequate passenger comfort and poor cool down performance of the vehicle is observed. This paper refers to the reduction of heat ingress through different DOE (Design of Experiment) in the area of design & validation for duct & vent layout, insulation, glass & paint technology, evaporator blowers. The new duct design has been evaluated using a CFD tool by varying various parameters to generate desired output. The integrated use of the modifications was found significant improvement at vehicle level.