Search Results

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.

NVH quality is one of the most important criteria by which people judge the design of a vehicle. The Powertrain Mounting System (PMS), which can reduce the vibration from engine to vehicle cab as well as the inside noise, has attained significant attention. Much research has been done on the isolation method for three- and four-point mounting. But the six-point mounting system, which is usually equipped in commercial vehicle, is seldom studied and should be paid more attention. In this paper, the support rod installed on the upside of the transmission case is considered as a flexible body. Thus a rigid-flexible coupling model of PMS is established and the necessity of the established model is analyzed by comparing the simulation results of the new model and those of the conventional model.

The ride comfort of the commercial vehicle is mainly affected by several vibration isolation systems such as the primary suspension system, engine mounting system and the cab mounting system. A rigid-flexible coupling model for the truck was built and analyzed in multi-body environment (ADAMS). The method applying the excitation on the wheels center and the engine mountings in time domain was presented. The variables' effects on the ride performance were studied by design of experiment (DOE). The optimal design was obtained by the co-simulation of the ADAMS/View, iSIGHT and Matlab. It was found that the vertical root mean square (RMS) acceleration and frequency-weighted RMS acceleration on the seat track were reduced about 17% and 11% respectively at different speeds relative to baseline according to ISO 2631-1.

The suspension system of a heavy truck's driver seat plays an important role to reduce the vibrations transmitted to the seat occupant from the cab floor. Air-spring is widely used in the seat suspension system, for the reason that its spring rate is variable and it can make the seat suspension system keep constant ‘tuned’ frequency compared to the conventional coil spring. In this paper, vibration differential equation of air-spring system with auxiliary volume is derived, according to the theory of thermodynamic, hydrodynamics. The deformation-load static characteristic curves of air-spring is obtained, by using a numerical solution method. Then, the ADAMS model of the heavy truck's driver seat suspension system is built up, based on the structure of the seat and parameters of the air-spring and the shock-absorber. At last, the model is validated by comparing the simulation results and the test results, considering the seat acceleration PSD and RMS value.

In this paper, a new computational method is provided to identify the uncertain parameters of Load Sensing Proportional Valve (LSPV) in a heavy truck brake system by using the polynomial chaos theory. The simulation model of LSPV is built in the software AMESim depending on structure of the valve, and the estimation process is implemented relying on the experimental measurements by pneumatic bench test. With the polynomial chaos expansion carried out by collocation method, the output observation function of the nonlinear pneumatic model can be transformed into a linear and time-invariant form, and the general recursive functions based on Newton method can therefore be reformulated to fit for the computer programming and calculation. To improve the estimation accuracy, the Newton method is modified with reference to Simulated Annealing algorithm by introducing the Metropolis Principle to control the fluctuation during the estimation process and escape from the local minima.

The dual clutch transmission is one of the possible choices for electric vehicle drivelines. The basic principle and control mode of shifting of wet dual clutch transmission are introduced, and the dynamic process of shifting of wet double clutch transmission is studied. Combined with the dynamic model of the wet clutch engagement process, the difference between the dynamic characteristics of the dual clutch transmission modeling using the Coulomb friction model and the dual-clutch transmission model using the average flow model and the micro-convex contact theory is analyzed. The shift control strategy of the dual clutch transmission proposes a correction method to improve the shifting smoothness. Studies have shown that the torque response of the wet clutch has significant hysteresis, and the improved control algorithm can significantly improve the shifting smoothness of the wet dual clutch transmission.

In this paper, a multi-mode active seat suspension with a single actuator is proposed and built. A one-DOF seat suspension system is modelled based on a quarter car model of commercial vehicle with an actuator which is comprised of a DC motor and a gear reducer. Aiming at improving ride comfort and reducing energy consumption, a multi-mode controller is established. According to the seat vertical acceleration and suspension dynamic travel signals, control strategies switch between three modes: active drive mode, energy harvesting mode and plug breaking mode.

Tyre behavior plays an important role in vehicle dynamics simulation. The Magic Formula Tyre Model is a semi-empirical tyre model which describes tyre behavior quite accurately in the handling simulation. The Magic Formula Tyre Model needs a set of parameters to describe the tyre properties; the determination of these parameters is nontrivial task due to its nonlinear nature and the presence of a large number of coefficients. In this paper, the homotopy algorithm is applied to the parameter identification of Magic Formula tyre model. A morphing parameter is introduced to correct the optimization process; as a result, the solution is directed converging to the global optimal solution, avoiding the local convergence. The method uses different continuation methods to globally optimize the parameters, which ensures that the prediction of the Magic Formula model can be very close to the test data at all stages of the optimization process.

The design of suspension affects the vehicle dynamics such as ride comfort and handling stability. Nonlinear characteristics and friction are important characteristics of suspension system, and the influence on vehicle dynamic performance cannot be ignored. Based on the seven-degree-of-freedom vehicle vibration nonlinear model with friction, the vibration response process of the vehicle and the influence of suspension friction on vehicle ride comfort and suspension action process were studied. The results show that friction will significantly affects the simulation of ride comfort and coincide with the function of the shock absorber. The suspension shock absorbers of vehicles were optimized with and without suspension friction. The results showed that the suspension tended to choose softer shock absorbers when there was friction. However, both of the two optimizations are able to improve the ride comfort of vehicles, and the simulation results were similar.

Elastomeric bushings are widely used in the passenger cars to make the cars have an ideal vehicle Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) performance. However, elastomeric bushings also influence on the vehicle handling, ride and the durability performance of each component in the vehicle suspension system. It is relatively easy and cost effective to change the compliance of the bushing components compared with other method because they are made of elastomeric materials. The design of an elastomeric bushing is really a big challenge. One of the main difficulties comes from the different target compliance is wanted according to the handling, ride and durability demand at each different orientation (indicated by X Y Z) of the bushing. In this paper the following procedure was used for optimization of suspension elastomeric bushing compliance. Firstly, a detailed multi-body model was built including the nonlinear bushing effects and lower control arm flexibility.

This paper investigates a hierarchical optimization procedure for the optimum synthesis of a double-axle steering mechanism by considering the dynamic load of a vehicle which is seldom discussed in the previous literature. Firstly, a multi-body model of double-axle steering is presented by characterizing the detailed leaf spring effect. Accordingly, the influences of dynamic load including the motion interference of steering linkage resulted from the elastic deformation of leaf spring, and the effects of wheel slip angle and the position discrepancy of wheel speed rotation centers are explored systematically. And then, a hierarchical optimization method based on target cascading methodology is proposed to classify the design variables of double-axle steering mechanism into four levels. At last, a double-axle steering mechanism of a heavy-duty truck is utilized to demonstrate the validity of this method.

Active steering systems can help the driver to master critical driving situations. This paper presents a fuzzy logic control strategy on active steering vehicle based on a multi-body vehicle dynamic model. The multi-body vehicle dynamic model using ADAMS can accurately predict the dynamic performance of the vehicle. A new hybrid steering scheme including both active front steering (applying an additional front steering angle besides the driver input) and rear steering is presented to control both yaw velocity and sideslip angle. A set of fuzzy logic rules is designed for the active steering controller, and the fuzzy controller can adjust both sideslip angle and yaw velocity through the co-simulation between ADAMS and the Matlab fuzzy control unit with the optimized membership function. To ensure the design of high-quality fuzzy control rules, a rule optimization strategy is introduced.

To design and optimize the vehicle driveline is necessary to decrease the fuel consumption and improve dynamic performance. This paper describes a methodology to optimize the driveline design including the axle ratio, transmission shift points and transmission shift ratios considering uncertainty. A new and flexible tool for modeling multi-domain systems, Modelica, is used to carry out the modeling and analysis of a vehicle, and the multi-domain model is developed to determine the optimum design in terms of fuel economy, with determinability. Secondly, a robust optimization is carried out to find the optimum design considering uncertainty. The results indicate that the fuel economy and dynamic performance are improved greatly.

To solve the dynamic response problem that contains uncertain parameters needs, the stochastic differential equations needs to be calculated. Interval analysis has been widely used to solve engineering problems which contain many uncertain parameters usually. But the numerical solution method for stochastic differential equations based on the interval analysis method was seldom investigated. In this study a new numerical interval method for the stochastic differential equations based on the Euler's method is presented, which can be used to solve the linear system effectively and efficiently. The probabilistic and interval dynamics analysis of a two-degree-of-freedom bike car model with uncertain parameters are presented.

Hydraulic power steering system, which can reduce the steering hand force by applying the output from a hydraulic actuator, has been widely used in vehicles. In this paper, a detailed steer model including steering column, steering trapezium, and detailed hydraulic power steering system which is consisting of steering cylinder, relief valve, rotary valve, pump and hydraulic lines were established, and a multi-body model of a heavy truck was established to connect with the hydraulic power steering system. Modelica simulation language, which can be efficiently used to investigate multi-domain problems, was used to in the modeling and simulation of the power steering system and the vehicle. The simulation was carried out to identify the effects of design variables on the lateral stability of the vehicle. The application of Modelica for investigating multi-domain problems is also demonstrated.

Three constitutive models which capture the amplitude and frequency dependency of filled elastomers are implemented for the conventional engine mounts of automotive powertrain mounting system (PMS). Firstly, a multibody dynamic model of a light duty truck is proposed, which includes 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs) for the PMS. Secondly, Three constitutive models for filled elastomers are implemented for the engine mounts of the PMS, including: (1) Model 1: Kelvin-Voigt model; (2) Model 2: Fractional derivative Kelvin-Voigt model combined with Berg’s friction; (3) Model 3: Generalized elastic viscoelastic elastoplastic model. The nonlinear behaviors of dynamic stiffness and damping of the mounts are investigated. Thirdly, simulations of engine vibration dynamics are presented and compared with these models and the differences between common Kelvin-Voigt model and other constitutive models are observed and analyzed.

Steering returnability is an important index for evaluating vehicle handling performance. A systematic method is presented in this paper to reduce the high yaw rate residue and the steering response time for a light duty truck in the steering return test. The vehicle multibody model is established in ADAMS, which takes into consideration of the frictional loss torque and hydraulically assisted steering property in the steering mechanism, since the friction, which exists in steering column, spherical joint, steering universal joint, and steering gear, plays an important role in vehicle returnability performance. The accuracy of the vehicle model is validated by road test and the key parameters are determined by executing the sensitivity analysis, which shows the effect of each design parameter upon returnability performance.

This paper focuses on dynamic analysis and frame optimization of a FSAE racing car frame. Firstly, a Multi-Body Dynamic (MBD) model of the racing car is established using ADAMS/Car. The forces and torques of the mechanical joints between the frame and suspensions are calculated in various extreme working conditions. Secondly, the strength, stiffness and free vibration modes of the frame are analyzed using Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The extracted forces and torques in the first step are used as boundary conditions in FEA. The FEA results suggest that the size of the frame may be not reasonable. Thirdly, the size of the frame is optimized to achieve minimized weight. Meanwhile the strength and stiffness of the frame are constrained. The optimization results reveal that the optimization methodology is powerful in lightweight design of the frame.

This work is motivated by the fact that the surface of a terrain may vary with local pavement properties and number of passes of the vehicle, which means the roughness coefficient and waviness of the terrain may vary in specific intervals. However, in traditional random terrain models, the roughness coefficient and waviness of the terrain are assumed as constants. Therefore, this assumption may be not very reasonable. A novel random terrain model is presented where the roughness coefficient and waviness of the terrain are expressed by interval numbers instead of constants. A 5-degree-of-freedom ride dynamic model of the vehicle with uncertain parameters is derived. The power spectral density (PSD) and root mean square value (RMS) of the vehicle ride responses are shown and analyzed. Analysis results indicate that the vehicle responses vary in specific intervals under the random terrain excitation with interval parameters.

The automatic mechanical transmission (AMT) was designed by automobile manufacturers to provide a better driving experience, especially in cities where congestion frequently causes stop-and-go traffic patterns. It uses electronic sensors, processors, hydraulic or pneumatic actuators execute clutch actuation and gear shifts on the command of the driver. Such systems coupled with various physical domains have great influence on the dynamic behavior of the vehicle, such as shift quality, driveability, acceleration, etc. This paper presents a detailed AMT model composed of various components from multi-domains like mechanical systems (clutch, gear pair, synchronizer, etc.), pneumatic actuator systems (clutch actuation system, gear select actuation system, gear shift actuation system, etc.). Various components and subsystem models, such as the vehicle, engine, AMT, wheels, etc., are integrated into an overall vehicle system model according to the transmission power flow and control logic.