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“Spotlight on Design: Insight” features an in-depth look at the latest technology breakthroughs impacting mobility. 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. When automotive and aerospace manufacturers look for a material with superior lightweight and strength characteristics, they often look no further than composite materials. In the episode “Composite Materials: New Trends in Automotive Design” (10:20), an engineer from Molded Fiber Glass Research Company demonstrates how they develop and test the properties of composite materials, and an engineer at MirTEQ Incorporated discusses designing molds for an aftermarket composite part.

Racing Green Endurance: An EV Record will focus on what a small team of ambitious and talented engineers can do when they have a dream! Back in 2009, a team of graduates from Imperial College London came together to do something radical to change the public perception of electric vehicles forever. They came up with the idea to design and build the world's longest range electric car, and then drive it down the longest and toughest road in the world; the 26,000km Pan-American Highway! Racing Green Endurance: An EV Record will share the story from start to finish, and will also focus on the technology used to achieve such a feat, with particular mention of the electric motors. Presenter Alexander Schey, Imperial College London

“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. In the episode “Composite Materials: Advanced Materials and Lightweighting” (30:20), Molded Fiber Glass Companies, known for its deep involvement in the creative development of the molded fiberglass process for the Corvette, demonstrates the manufacturing of sheet molded composite for fiberglass parts. Tanom Motors introduces the Tanom Invader, a blend between an automobile and a motorcycle made exclusively with composite materials. Finally, Euro-Composites demonstrates the manufacturing of honeycomb core material made out of aramid paper and phenolic resin used in aircraft structures.

The CAN protocol has served the automotive and related industries well for over twenty-five (25) years now; with the original CAN protocol officially released in 1986 followed by the release of CAN 2.0 in 1991. Since then many variants and improvements in CAN combined with the proliferation of automotive onboard microprocessor based sensors and controllers have resulted in CAN establishing itself as the dominant network architecture for automotive onboard communication in layers one (1) and two (2). Going forward however, the almost exponential growth of automotive onboard computing and the associated devices necessary for supporting said growth will unfortunately necessitate an equivalent growth in the already crowded wired physical infrastructure unless a suitable wireless alternative can be provided. While a wireless implementation of CAN has been produced, it has never obtained real traction within the automotive world.

DSM will present various application solutions in High Performance Plastics enabling to significant weight or friction reduction and thus to reduced fuel consumption and/or emission levels, and on top of that to lower system costs. Typical Eco+ Solutions Examples to be presented are: - Friction Reduction: Nylon 46 in chain tensioners yielding up to 1 % fuel reduction - Weight Reduction (metal-to-plastic conversion): Nylon 46 with long term temperature resistance upto 230 C in turbo components, Nylon 6 in oil pans/sumps, PET in plastic precision parts, Nylon 46 in gears, many other examples - Electrification: Nylon 46 in start/stop and e-motor components, TPC in HV cables - System Cost optimization: High Flow PA6 in various components, TPC in Brake Tubes - Improved LCA: biobased materials as PA410 and TPC-Eco Typical Application Solutions concern: air induction systems, engine and transmission components, electrical systems, structural&safety parts.

There is a need to accelerate the automotive industry's alert notification and distribution process for quality, reliability, counterfeit, and safety issues that reside in specific electronic components or circuit card assemblies. This paper describes an alert procedure for an entire supply chain that can improve operational efficiency and reduce the costs associated with responding to and resolving those issues. Interoperability: Ability to work with each other. It is frequently unnecessary for separate resources to know the details of how they each work. But they need to have enough common ground to reliably exchange messages quickly without error or misunderstanding. Presenter William Crowley, QTEC Inc.

This paper reports solubility, diffusivity and permeability data for soy and rapeseed methyl esters in polyethylene together with comparisons with methyl oleate and linoleate. These data were used to discuss the reliability of predictive models for diffusion and solubility of additive type molecules into semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymers. Presenter Emmanuel Richaud

Abstract This work introduces the concept of a dual-layer specification structure for standards that separate interoperability functions, such as backward compatibility, localization, and deployment, from those essential to reliability, security, and functionality. The latter group of features, which constitute the actual standard, make up the baseline layer for instructions, while all the elements required for interoperability are specified in a second layer, known as a Protocols, Operations, Usage, and Formats (POUF) document. We applied this technique in the development of a standard for Uptane [1], a security framework for over-the-air (OTA) software updates used in many automobiles. This standard is a good candidate for a dual-layer specification because it requires communication between entities, but does not require a specific format for this communication.

Abstract Reliability analysis of a large-scale system under random dynamic loads can be a very time-consuming task since it requires repeated studies of the system. In many engineering problems, for example, wave loads on an offshore platform, the excitation loads are defined using a power spectral density (PSD) function. For a given PSD function, one needs to generate many time histories to make sure the excitation load is modeled accurately. Global and local approximation methods are available to predict the system response efficiently. Each way has their advantages and shortcomings. The combined approximations (CA) method is an efficient method, which combines the advantages of local and global approximations. This work demonstrates two methodologies that utilize CA to reduce the cost of crude or separable Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) of linear dynamic systems when the excitation loads are defined using PSD functions.

The embedded software has played an increasing role in safety-critical systems. At the same time the current development process of “build, then integrate” has proven unaffordable for the Aerospace industry. This paper outlines challenges in safety-critical embedded systems in addressing system-level faults that are currently discovered late in the development life cycle. We then discuss an architecture-centric approach to model-based engineering, i.e., to complement the validation of systems with analysis of different operational quality aspects from an architecture model. A key technology in this approach is the Architecture Analysis & Design Language (AADL), an SAE International standard for embedded software system. It supports analysis of operational qualities such as responsiveness, safety-criticality, security, and reliability through model annotations.

In the present work, an experimental and numerical analysis of high pressure Diesel spray evolution is carried out in terms of spray momentum flux time history and instantaneous injection rate. The final goal of spray momentum and of injection rate analyses is the evaluation of the nozzle outlet flow characteristics and of the nozzle internal geometry possible influences on cavitation phenomena, which are of primary importance for the spray evolution. Further, the evaluation of the flow characteristics at the nozzle exit is fundamental in order to obtain reliable boundary conditions for injection process 3D simulation. In this paper, spray momentum data obtained in ambient temperature, high counter-pressure conditions at the Perugia University Spray Laboratory are presented and compared with the results of 3D simulations of the momentum rig itself.

Accelerated life testing (ALT) is widely used to determine the failure time distribution of a product and the associated life-stress relationship in order to predict the product's reliability under normal operating conditions. Many types of stress loadings such as constant-stress, step-stress and cyclic-stress can be utilized when conducting ALT. Extensive research has been conducted on the analysis of ALT data obtained under a specified stress loading. However, the equivalency of ALT experiments involving different stress loadings has not been investigated. In this paper, a definition is provided for the equivalency of various ALT plans involving different stress loadings. Based on this definition, general equivalent ALT plans and some special types of equivalent ALT plans are explored. For demonstration, a constant-stress ALT and a ramp-stress ALT for miniature lamps are presented and their equivalency is investigated.

As the number of electrical devices in modern vehicles increases, the battery becomes more critical component for the operation of vehicles. To ensure the startability of the vehicle, battery conditions such as state of charge and state of health should be properly monitored and maintained. To reduce walk-home incidents due to no-start situation, appropriate warning should be issued to the driver to advise necessary actions such as replacing or re-charging the battery. For the last couple of years, General Motors has studied and developed several battery health monitoring methods based on different battery health signatures. Yet, it is found that relying on a single method may lead to false alarm or misdetection due to lack of information or uncertainty. This paper develops the algorithm for more robust and reliable battery health monitoring and prognosis, by applying Evidence Theory to fuse different battery health signatures.

A simulation-based, system reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) method is presented that can handle problems with multiple failure regions and correlated random variables. Copulas are used to represent the correlation. The method uses a Probabilistic Re-Analysis (PRRA) approach in conjunction with a trust-region optimization approach and local metamodels covering each trust region. PRRA calculates very efficiently the system reliability of a design by performing a single Monte Carlo (MC) simulation per trust region. Although PRRA is based on MC simulation, it calculates “smooth” sensitivity derivatives, allowing therefore, the use of a gradient-based optimizer. The PRRA method is based on importance sampling. It provides accurate results, if the support of the sampling PDF contains the support of the joint PDF of the input random variables. The sequential, trust-region optimization approach satisfies this requirement.

Structural adhesive joints are expected to retain integrity in their entire service-life that normally involves cyclic loading concurrent with environmental exposure. Under such a severe working condition, effective determination of fatigue life at different temperatures is crucial for reliable joint design. The main goal of this work was thus defined as evaluation of fatigue performance of adhesive joints at their extreme working temperatures in order to be compared with their fracture properties under static loading. A series of standard double-cantilever-beam (DCB) specimens have been bonded by three structural 3M epoxy adhesives selected from different applications. The specimens were tested under monotonic and cyclic opening loads (mode-I) in order to evaluate the quasi-static and fatigue performances of selected adhesives at room temperature, 80°C and -40°C.

Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is an emerging sheet metal prototyping technology where a part is formed as one or more stylus tools are moving in a pre-determined path and deforming the sheet metal locally while the sheet blank is clamped along its periphery. A deformation analysis of incremental forming process is presented in this paper. The analysis includes the development of an analytical model for strain distributions based on part geometry and tool paths; and numerical simulations of the forming process with LS-DYNA. A skew cone is constructed and used as an example for the study. Analytical and numerical results are compared, and excellent correlations are found. It is demonstrated that the analytical model developed in this paper is reliable and efficient in the prediction of strain distributions for incremental forming process.

In this research, the interior noise of a passenger car was measured, and the sound quality metrics including sound pressure level, loudness, sharpness, and roughness were calculated. An artificial neural network was designed to successfully apply on automotive interior noise as well as numerous different fields of technology which aim to overcome difficulties of experimentations and save cost, time and workforce. Sound pressure level, loudness, sharpness, and roughness were estimated by using the artificial neural network designed by using the experiment values. The predicted values and experiment results are compared. The comparison results show that the realized artificial intelligence model is an appropriate model to estimate the sound quality of the automotive interior noise. The reliability value is calculated as 0.9995 by using statistical analysis.

The paper presents a model-based approach to testing embedded automotive software systems in a real-time. Model-based testing approach relates to a process of creating test artifacts using various kinds of models. Real-time testing involves the use of a real-time environment to implement test application. Engineers shall use real-time testing techniques to achieve greater reliability and/or determinism in a test system. The paper contains an instruction how to achieve these objectives by proper definition, implementation, execution, and evaluation of test cases. The test cases are defined and implemented in a modeling environment. The execution and evaluation of test results is made in a real-time machine. The paper is concluded with results obtained from the initial deployment of the approach on a large scale in production stream projects.

Quality, Reliability, Durability (QRD) and Safety of vehicular Electrical/Electronics (E/E) systems traditionally have resulted from arduous rounds of Design-Built-Test-Fix (DBTF) Reliability and Durability Growth Testing. Such tests have historically required 12-16 or more weeks of Accelerated Life Testing (ALT), for each round of validation in a new product development program. Challenges have arisen from: The increasing number of E/E modules in today's vehicle places a high burden on supplier's test labs and budgets. The large size and mass of electric vehicle power modules results in a lower test acceleration factors which can extend each round of ALT to 5-6 months. Durability failures tend to occur late in life testing, resulting in the need to: perform a root cause investigation, fix the problem, build new prototype parts and then repeat the test to verify problem resolutions, which severely stress program budgets and schedules.

Failure analysis (FA) management is insufficiently described by current standards and literature. Previously proposed three-step systemic FA methodology provides effective and efficient alternative to sporadic FA. Organization, methods and results of the first step of the systemic FA, failure mode analysis (FMA), during product/project life cycle, is described. FMA promptly address ∼80% of all problems and justify/supports further actions using conventional ready techniques and resources. Original subject matter tools (three FMA levels, joint FMA-FMECA-F5 technique, and P5 failure classification) substantiate, facilitate and illustrate FMA. Multiple examples demonstrate FMA strengths and limitations with uniquely broad range of products and applications. Particular attention is paid to rare combination of high quality, reliability and profitability.