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As automotive technology has been developed, gear whine has become a prominent contributor for cabin noise as the masking has been decreased. Whine is not the loudest source, but it is of high tonal noise which is often highly unpleasant. The gear noise originates at gear mesh. Transmission Error acts as an excitation source and these vibrations pass through gears, shafts and bearings to the housing which vibrates to produce noise on surrounding air. As microgeometry optimization target to reduce the fundamental excitation source of the noise, it has been favored method to tackle gear whine noise, especially for manual transmission. However, practicality of microgeometry optimization for the planetary gear system has been still in question, because of complex system structure and interaction among multi mesh gear sets make it hard to predict and even harder to improve. In this paper, successful case of whine noise improvement by microgeometry is presented.

The existing FCEV have been developed with only a few vehicle models. With the diversification of both passenger and commercial FCEV lineups, as well as the increasing demand for vehicle trailer towing, there is a growing need for high-capacity fuel cell stacks to be applied in vehicles. However, at the current level, there are limitations and issues that arise, such as insufficient power output and reduced driving speed. As a results, the importance of thermal energy management has been increasing along with the increase in required power. Traditional cooling performance enhancement methods have mainly focused on developing increased hardware specifications, but even this approach has reached its limitation due to package, cost and weight problem. Therefore, it is essential to develop a new cooling system to solve the increases in heat dissipation.

This paper presents the research related to the self-driving system that has been actively carried out recently. Previous studies have been limited to ensure the path following performance in linear and steady state-alike handling region with small lateral acceleration. However, in the high speed driving, the vehicle cornering response is extended to nonlinear region where tire grips are saturated. This requires a technology to create the driving path for minimum time maneuvering while grasping the tire grip limits of the vehicle in real time. The entire controller consists of three stages-hierarchy: The target motion is determined in the supervisor phase, and the target force to follow the target behavior is calculated in the upper stage controller. Finally, the lower stage controller calculates the actuator phase control input corresponding to the target force.

The purpose of this study is to develop a dynamic model that can accurately predict the motion of the door handle and counterweight during side impact crash tests. The door locking system, mainly composed of the door outside handle and door latch, is theoretically modeled, and it is assumed that the door outer panel can rotate and translate in all three directions during a side impact crash. Additionally, the numerical results are compared with real crash video footage, and satisfactory qualitative agreement is found. Finally, the simplified test rig that efficiently reflects the real crash test is introduced, and its operation is analyzed.

A study of unsteady compressible flow for two types of exhaust manifold and CCC (Close-Coupled Catalyst) systems attached to a 4-cylinder DOHC gasoline engine was carried out to investigate the flow distribution of exhaust gases and finally to make the conversion efficiency of catalyst better. An experimental study was conducted, using LDV technique, to measure the velocity distributions inside exhaust manifolds and CCC under practical engine conditions. In this study, through experiment and calculation, the effects of geometric configuration of exhaust manifold on flow maldistribution in monolith were mainly investigated to understand the exhaust flow structure in terms of flow uniformity and to improve the conversion efficiency. As a result of this fundamental study, the modified exhaust manifold (Type B) was designed and manufactured. Full load performance tests and vehicle emission tests were performed to see the effects of flow characteristics on engine performance and emission.

The engine indicated torque is not delivered entirely to the wheels, because it is lowered by losses, such as the pumping, mechanical friction and front auxiliary power consumption. The front auxiliary belt drive system is a big power consumer-fueling and operating the various accessory devices, such as air conditioning compressor, electric alternator, and power steering pump. The standard fuel economy test does not consider the auxiliary driving torque when it is activated during the actual driving condition and it is considered a five-cycle correction factor only. Therefore, research on improving the front end auxiliary drive (FEAD) system is still relevant in the immediate future, particularly regarding the air conditioning compressor and the electric alternator. An exertion to minimize the auxiliary loss is much smaller than the sustained effort required to reduce engine friction loss.

This paper presents a tire slip-angle based speed control race driver model. In developing a chassis control system for enhancement of high-speed driving performance, analysis of the vehicle-driver interaction at limit handling is one of the main research issues. Thus, a driver model which represents driving characteristics in a racing situation is required to develop a chassis control system. Since a race driver drives a vehicle as fast as possible on a given racing line without losing control, the proposed driver model is developed to ensure a lateral stability. In racing situation, one of the reasons which cause the lateral instabilities is an excessive corner-entry speed. The lateral instability in that moment is hard to handle with only a steering control. To guarantee the lateral stability of the vehicle while maximizing a cornering speed, a desired speed is determined to retain a tire slip-angle that maximizes lateral tire forces without front tire saturation.

In this paper, an application process is studied at which the insertion loss (IL) test data of sound insulating parts or noise control treatments are utilized for the sound transmission loss (STL) simulation of the trimmed dash structure. The considered sound barrier assemblies were composed of a felt layer, a mass layer, and a decoupler layer. Flat samples of sound barrier assemblies with several different thicknesses were prepared, and ILs of them were measured by using a sound transmission loss facility. Flat samples were assumed to have mass-spring-mass resonance frequencies. The mass was set as the area mass of the sound barrier layer of the felt layer and the mass layer. The spring constant of the decoupler layer was assumed as the multiplication of that of an air spring and a spring correction factor.

Aerodynamic simulation results are most of the time compared to wind tunnel results. It is too often simplistically believed that it suffice to take the CAD geometry of a car, prepare and run a CFD simulation to obtain results that should be comparable. With the industry requesting accuracies of a few drag counts when comparing CFD to wind tunnel results, a careful analysis of the element susceptible of creating a difference in the results is in order. In this project a detailed 1:4 scale model of the Hyundai Genesis was tested in the model wind tunnel of the FKFS. Five different underbody panel configurations of the car were tested going from a fully paneled car to a car without panels. The impact of the moving versus static ground was also tested, providing over all ten different experimental results for this car model.

This research aims to develop an inverse control method capable of adaptively simulating dynamic models of car subsystems in the rig-test condition. Accurate simulation of the actual vibration conditions is one of the most crucial factors in realizing reliable rig-test platforms. However, most typical rig tests are conducted under simple random or harmonic sweep conditions. Moreover, the conventional test methods are hard to directly adapt to the actual vibration conditions when switching the dynamic characteristics of the subsystem in the rig test. In the present work, we developed an inverse controller to adaptively control the vibration exciter referring to the target vibration signal. An adaptive LMS filter, employed for the control algorithm, updated the filter weights in real time by referring to the target and the measured acceleration signals.

In the brake system, unevenly distributed disc-pad contact pressure not only leads to a falling-off in braking feeling due to uneven wear of brake pads, but also a main cause of system instability which leads to squeal noise. For this reason there have been several attempts to measure contact pressure distribution. However, only static pressure distribution has been measured in order to estimate the actual pressure distribution. In this study a new test method is designed to quantitatively measure dynamic contact pressure distribution between disc and pad in vehicle testing. The characteristics of dynamic contact pressure distribution are analyzed for various driving conditions and pad shape. Based on those results, CAE model was updated and found to be better in detecting propensity of brake squeal.

This research addresses the pressing need for reducing vehicle aerodynamic resistance, with a specific focus on mitigating wheel and tire resistance, which constitutes approximately 25% of the overall vehicle drag. While the prevailing method for reducing resistance in mass production development involves wheel opening reduction, it inadvertently increases wheel weight and has adverse effects on brake cooling performance. To overcome these challenges, novel complementary resistance reduction methods that can be employed in conjunction with an appropriate degree of wheel opening reduction are imperative. In this study, we introduce symmetrical wheels with a fan-like shape as a solution. The fan configuration influences the surrounding flow by either drawing it in or pushing it out, depending on the direction of rotation. Application of these fan-type wheels to a vehicle's wheels results in the redirection of flow inwards or outwards during high-speed driving due to wheel rotation.

In this research, the influence of tire force and moment (F&M) characteristics on vehicle on-center steering performance was analyzed and then how to improve vehicle on-center performance was studied through controlling tire structure design parameter, tread pattern shape and tread grip characteristics. First, the relationship between vehicle on-center steering performance and tire F&M characteristics was identified by comparing vehicle steering measurements and tire F&M measurements. It was found that key factor of tire related with on-center performance is aligning torque at lower slip angles. As the aligning torque at slip angle 1° increases, on-center feel is improved. Second, the influence of tire design parameters on tire aligning torque was studied through F&M finite element (FE) analysis and measurement. It was found that the aligning torque at lower slip angle increases as stiffness of the tread and sidewall decreases.

With the spread of new trends such as autonomous driving and vehicle subscription service, drivers may pay less attention to the maintenance of the vehicle. Brake pads being safety critical components, the wear condition of all service brakes is required by regulation to be indicated by either acoustic of optical devices or a means of visually checking the degree of brake lining wear [1]. Current application of the wear indicator in the market uses either sound generating metal strip or wire harness based pad wear sensor. The former is not effective in generating clear alarm to the driver, and the latter is not cost effective, and there is a need for more effective and low cost solution. In this paper, a pad wear monitoring system using MOC(Motor On Caliper) EPB(Electric Parking Brake) ECU is proposed. An MOC EPB is equipped with a motor, geartrain and an ECU. The motor current when applying the parking brake is influenced by the mechanical load at the brake pad side of the system.

In this study, a novel selective matching logic for a wheel/tire is proposed, to decrease the vehicle driving vibration caused by wheel/tire non-uniformity. The new logic was validated through matching simulation/in-line matching evaluation. A theoretical radial force variation model was established by considering the theoretical model of the existing references and the wheel/tire assembly mechanism. The model was validated with ZF’s high-speed uniformity equipment, which is standard in the tire industry. The validity of the new matching logic was verified through matching simulation and mass production in-line evaluation. In conclusion, the novel logic presented herein was demonstrated to effectively decrease the radial force variation caused by the wheel/tire.

Accelerated simulation of vehicle corrosion in a controlled environment not only involves large chambers for actual vehicle tests, but also requires careful consideration of interactions between various parameters given a short time period within which the test is bounded. A new corrosion durability test mode reproducing various field conditions using salt spray, climatic, sunlight simulation and cold chambers has been developed. Verification of the test mode is carried out using four actual vehicle corrosion tests correlated against used cars of Nort h America and Northern Europe. The process of new corrosion test mode is discussed along with the characteristics of the test chambers.

This study provides a tire puncture sealant including NR latex and acrylic emersion, which has a reduced viscosity at -40°C, and is also excellent storage stability at -40°C to 70°C, initial sealing performance. Also, this study provides device for sealing inflatable objects. 'One- Piece Tire Repair Kit' can reduce weight and operation steps.

We developed new single coated Pd/Rh three-way catalysts (TWC). Several Pd/Rh single layered catalysts were prepared by changing the precious metal (PM) fixation method and adding new base metal oxides (BMO). These samples were compared with double-coated catalyst by using model gas activity test, BET test, XRD test and vehicle emission test. It is found that the performance of the single coated catalyst is as good as that of commercialized double-coated catalyst. The oxygen storage capacity of the single coated catalyst is better than that of double-coated catalyst. Moreover, manufacturing the single coated catalyst enables us to eliminate the unnecessary coating process which is essential to the conventional one. Our test results demonstrate that the developed catalyst has sufficient activity and durability of OSC to meet emission and OBD-II regulations.

In order to reduce the cost and weight of the soft-foamed instrument-panel (IP), we developed the new IP which is made by the 2 kinds of injection methods. One is the compression-injection with back-foamed foil inserted, and the other is two-shot injection with the passenger-side airbag (PAB) door. We named it ‘IMX-IP’ which means that all components (‘X’) of the IP with different resins are made In a Mold. The development procedure of this technology was introduced (1) Design of the new injection mold through TRIZ application, (2) Optimization of the injection conditions and back foamed-foil for minimizing the foam loss and thickness deviation, (3) Development of CAE method for two-shot injection compression, (4) Reliability performance test and application to the mass production. The reduction of the processes through the two-shot molding with back foamed-foil inserted made it possible to enhance soft feeling on IP and reduce the cost and weight simultaneously.

Tire tread pattern noise is a major source of road noise generated by motor vehicles. Recently, noise control technology has been developing, and low-noise motor vehicles, such as electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, have been commercialized. The importance of low-noise tires has increased since regulations R117 for tire noise and R51.03 for motor vehicle noise have been strengthened. To evaluate the tire noise in the development stage of motor vehicles, finished products of tires are required; hence, financial and time costs should be invested. Therefore, it is highly useful to predict tire noise levels in the early stages. Recently, a technology to predict the tire pattern noise using a supervised training method of artificial neural network (ANN) has been developed. The tire tread depth is estimated using the shading of the full image of the actual tire, and the leading edge of the contact patch is calculated using tire contact patch images.