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Developing relatively cheap and widely available resources for heterogeneous solid catalyst synthesis is a promising approach for biodiesel fuel industry. Seashell which is essentially calcium carbonate can be used as a basic support for transesterification heterogeneous catalysts. In the present investigation, the alcoholysis of waste frying oil has been carried out using seashell-supported K3 PO4 as solid catalyst. Presenter Essam Oun Al-Zaini, PhD student, UNSW

Hybrid vehicles are rapidly entering the commercial and consumer marketplaces. However, hybrids introduce safety and service issues many Owners and Service Technicians are not familiar with. Components and systems may be so new existing standards need to be located or new standards developed. Technicians may need to learn new skills, acquire new tools and their service bays modified. Learn as solutions and problems are shared involving servicing hybrid vehicles. Organizer Mark N. Pope,General Motors LLC Arnold Taube,John Deere Company Moderator Mark N. Pope,General Motors Company Panelist Russell George Christ,Deere & Company Mark Quarto,General Motors Company Arnold Taube,DEERE AND CO Organizer Mark N. Pope, General Motors LLC Arnold Taube, John Deere Company Moderator Mark N. Pope, General Motors Company Panelist Russell George Christ, Deere & Company Mark Quarto, General Motors Company Arnold Taube, DEERE AND CO

There are many macro drivers that are creating opportunities for transportation electrification. They include the environment, dependence on foreign oil, national security, battery technology and government incentives to name a few. In light of this growing momentum consumers will have choices to where they can charge ? at home, workplace or publicly. Electrical vehicle supply equipment will drive value throughout the supply chain ? installer, building owner, automaker, suppliers, utilities and consumers. Market acceptance will occur when consumer?s needs and wants are met. To meet these needs access to products through multiple channels will be required. Presenter Manoj Karwa, Leviton Manufacturing Co. Inc.

Can you become a visionary or are you born one? How does a visionary capture an opportunity and makes it a successful business? Are engineers more qualified to solve technical problems or run companies? SAE's "The Visionary's Take" addresses these and many other questions, by talking directly with those who have dared to tackle difficult engineering problems, and create real-life products out of their experience. In these short episodes, Sanjiv Singh and Lyle Chamberlain, respectively CEO and Chief Engineer from Near Earth Autonomy, talk about their experience in creating a brand-new company in the UAV world. Founded in 2011, Near Earth Autonomy brought together a group of engineers and roboticists, looking for unconventional solutions to very hard logistics problems, presenting danger to human life. The answers were developed by pushing technology to a higher level, testing quickly and often, and keeping an open mind to alternative ways of framing engineering challenges.

Can you become a visionary or are you born one? How does a visionary capture an opportunity and makes it a successful business? Are engineers more qualified to solve technical problems or run companies? SAE's "The Visionary's Take" addresses these and many other questions, by talking directly with those who have dared to tackle difficult engineering problems, and create real-life products out of their experience. In these short episodes, Sanjiv Singh and Lyle Chamberlain, respectively CEO and Chief Engineer from Near Earth Autonomy, talk about their experience in creating a brand-new company in the UAV world. Founded in 2011, Near Earth Autonomy brought together a group of engineers and roboticists, looking for unconventional solutions to very hard logistics problems, presenting danger to human life. The answers were developed by pushing technology to a higher level, testing quickly and often, and keeping an open mind to alternative ways of framing engineering challenges.

The 30 papers in this technical paper collection focus on heavy tire modeling/testing and evaluation; vehicle dynamics; wide based tires, sustainability and maintenance; air suspension, off-road chassis and suspension; hybrid drive and chassis; all wheel/multi-wheel drive vehicle dynamics and performance; testing and experimental analysis of chassis and suspension; and advanced chassis control and rollover.

Abstract Recently, electric heavy-duty tractor-trailers (EHDTTs) have assumed significance as they present an immediate solution to decarbonize the transportation sector. Hence, to illustrate the economic viability of electrifying the freight industry, a detailed numerical model to estimate the battery capacity for an EHDTT is proposed for a route between Washington, DC, to Knoxville, TN. This model incorporates the effects of the terrain, climate, vehicular forces, auxiliary loads, and payload in order to select the appropriate motor and optimize the battery capacity. Additionally, current and near-future battery chemistries are simulated in the model. Along with equations describing vehicular forces based on Newton’s second law of motion, the model utilizes the Hausmann and Depcik correlation to estimate the losses caused by the capacity offset of the batteries. Here, a Newton-Raphson iterative scheme determines the minimum battery capacity for the required state of charge.

Abstract Electric heavy-duty tractor-trailers (EHDTT) offer an important option to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) for the transportation sector. However, to increase the range of the EHDTT, this effort investigates critical vehicle design features that demonstrate a gain in overall freight efficiency of the vehicle. Specifically, factors affecting aerodynamics, rolling resistance, and gross vehicle weight are essential to arrive at practical input parameters for a comprehensive numerical model of the EHDTT, developed by the authors in a subsequent paper. For example, drag reduction devices like skirts, deturbulators, vortex generators, covers, and other commercially available apparatuses result in an aggregated coefficient of drag of 0.367. Furthermore, a mixed utilization of single-wide tires and dual tires allows for an optimized trade-off between low rolling resistance tires, traction, and durability.

Abstract An analysis method for the stability of combined braking system of tractor-semitrailer based on phase-plane is investigated. Based on a 9 degree of freedom model, considering longitudinal load transfer, nonlinear model of tire and other factors, the braking stability of tractor-semitrailer is analyzed graphically on the phase plane. The stability of both tractor and semitrailer with different retarder gear is validated with the energy plane, β plane, yaw angle plane and hinged angle plane. The result indicates that in the long downhill with curve condition, both tractor and semitrailer show good stability when retarder is working at 1st and 2nd gear, and when it is at 3rd gear, the tractor is close to be unstable while semitrailer is unstable already. Besides, tractor and semitrailer both lose stability when retarder is working at the 4th gear.

Abstract When commercial vehicles drive in a mountainous area, the complex road condition and long slopes cause frequent acceleration and braking, which will use 25% more fuel. And the brake temperature rises rapidly due to continuous braking on the long-distance downslopes, which will make the brake drum fail with the brake temperature exceeding 308°C [1]. Meanwhile, the kinetic energy is wasted during the driving progress on the slopes when the vehicle rolls up and down. Our laboratory built a model that could calculate the distance from the top of the slope, where the driver could release the accelerator pedal. Thus, on the slope, the vehicle uses less fuel when it rolls up and less brakes when down. What we do in this article is use this model in a real vehicle and measure how well it works.

Abstract This paper presents a machine learning application of the force/torque sensor in a human-robot collaborative manufacturing scenario. The purpose is to simplify the programming for physical interactions between the human operators and industrial robots in a hybrid manufacturing cell which combines several robotic applications, such as parts manipulation, assembly, sealing and painting, etc. A multiclass classifier using Light Gradient Boosting Machine (LightGBM) is first introduced in a robotic application for discriminating five different contact states w.r.t. the force/torque data. A systematic approach to train machine-learning based classifiers is presented, thus opens a door for enabling LightGBM with robotic data process. The total task time is reduced largely because force transitions can be detected on-the-fly. Experiments on an ABB force sensor and an industrial robot demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

"Spotlight on Design" features video interviews and case study segments, focusing on the latest technology breakthroughs. Viewers are virtually taken to labs and research centers to learn how design engineers are enhancing product performance/reliability, reducing cost, improving quality, safety or environmental impact, and achieving regulatory compliance. Just how prevalent is the problem of counterfeit electronic parts? What are the consequences of using sub-par components in safety or mission critical systems? The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that 2% of the 26 million airline parts installed each year are counterfeit, accounting for more than 520,000 units, maybe more.

Patents granted recently to Mr. Rode have changed the industry capability to adjust and verify wheel-end bearings on trucks. Until now it was believed1 that there was nothing available to confirm or verify the most desirable settings of preload on these bearings. The new, breakthrough invention is a tool and spindle-locking nut that permit quick and accurate wheel bearing adjustment by utilizing direct reading force measurement. Bearings can be set to either SAE recommended preloads or specific endplay settings. The author has been working on bearing adjustment methods for industrial applications for over forty years, and considers these inventions to be his most important breakthrough for solving this elusive bearing adjustment problem. Consistent wheel bearing preload adjustment was not possible before, even though it was widely known to achieve the best wheel performance as noted in SAE specification J2535 and re-affirmed in 2006 by the SAE Truck and Bus Wheel Subcommittee.

Facing a competitive and globalized market and with increasingly demanding customers, companies must constantly seek the development of practices in the development of new products. One of the current practices is the adoption of modularity. In that sense, the objective of this paper is to conduct an analysis of this practice in a Brazilian company, which manufactures agricultural machinery. The applicability of modular design in current products is focused. Therefore, a case study approach has been chosen. First, a review of the scientific literature was conducted, followed by field research, for collecting data based on interviews with product engineers and technical documentation. The case study shows the applicability of the modular design concept in a combine header, by increasing the number of repeated components. The modular header approach facilitates the implementation of engineering changes and allows greater standardization of components.

To get a sequence retainable rainflow cycle counting algorithm for fatigue analysis, an alternate equivalent explanation to rainflow cycle counting is introduced, based on which an iterative rainflow counting algorithm is proposed. The algorithm decomposes any given load-time history with more than one crest into three sub-histories by two troughs; each sub-history with more than one crest is iteratively decomposed into three shorter sub-histories, till each sub-history obtained contains only one single or no crest. Every sub-history that contains a single crest corresponds to a local closed (full) cycle. The mean load and alternate load component of the local cycle are calculated in parallel with the iterative procedure.

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the optimal design of pipeline diameter in an air brake system in order to reduce the response time for driving safety using DOE (Design of Experiment) method. To achieve this purpose, this paper presents the development and validation of a computer-aided analytical dynamic model of a pneumatic brake system in commercial vehicles. The brake system includes the subsystems for brake pedal, treadle valve, quick release valve, load sensing proportional valve and brake chamber, and the simulation models for individual components of the brake system are established within the multi-domain physical modeling software- AMESim based on the logic structure. An experimental test bench was set up by connecting each component with the nylon pipelines based on the actual layout of the 4×2 commercial vehicle air brake system.

Road vibrations cause fatigue failures in vehicle components and systems. Therefore, reliable and accurate damage and life assessment is crucial to the durability and reliability performances of vehicles, especially at early design stages. However, durability and reliability assessment is difficult not only because of the unknown underlying damage mechanisms, such as crack initiation and crack growth, but also due to the large uncertainties introduced by many factors during operation. How to effectively and accurately assess the damage status and quantitatively measure the uncertainties in a damage evolution process is an important but still unsolved task in engineering probabilistic analysis. In this paper, a new procedure is developed to assess the durability and reliability performance, and characterize the uncertainties of damage evolution of components under constant amplitude loadings.

The emergence of tougher environmental legislations and ever increasing demand for increased ride comfort, fuel efficiency, and low emissions have triggered exploration and advances towards more efficient vehicle gearbox technologies. The growing complexity and spatial distribution of such a mechatronic gearbox demands precise timing and coordination of the embedded electronics, integrated sensors and actuators as well as excellent overall reliability. The increased gearbox distributed systems have seen an increased dependence on sensors for feedback control, predominantly relying on hardware redundancy for faults diagnosis. However, the conventional hardware redundancy has disadvantages due to increased costs, weight, volume, power requirements and failure rates. This paper presents a virtual position sensor-based Fault Detection, Isolation and Accommodation (FDIA), which generates an analytical redundancy for comparison against the actual sensor output.

This paper describes the development and testing of a Dynamic Vibration Absorber to reduce frame beaming vibration in a highway tractor. Frame beaming occurs when the first vertical bending mode of the frame is excited by road or wheel-end inputs. It is primarily a problem for driver comfort. Up until now, few options were available to resolve this problem. The paper will review the phenomenon, design factors affecting a vehicle's sensitivity to frame beaming, and the principles of Dynamic Vibration Absorbers (AKA Tuned Mass Dampers). Finally, the paper will describe simulation and testing that led to the development of an effective vibration absorber as a field fix.

Coatings have the potential to improve bearing tribological performance. However, every coating application process and material combination may create different residual stresses and coating microstructures, and their effect on bearing fatigue and wear performance is unclear. The aim of this work is to investigate coating induced residual stress effects on bearing failure indicators using a microstructural contact mechanics (MSCM) finite element (FE) model. The MSCM FE model consists of a two-dimensional FE model of a coated bearing surface under sliding contact where individual grains are represented by FE domains. Interactions between FE domains are represented using contact element pairs. Unique to this layered rolling contact FE model is the use of polycrystalline material models to represent realistic bearing and coating microstructural behavior. The MSCM FE model was compared to a second non-microstructural contact mechanics (non-MSCM) model.