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A parallel-through-the-road (PTTR) plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is being created by modifying a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu. This is being accomplished by replacing the stock 2.4L gasoline engine which powers the front wheels of the vehicle with a 1.7L diesel engine and by placing a high voltage electric motor in the rear of the vehicle to power the rear wheels. In order to meet the high voltage needs of the vehicle created by the PTTR hybrid architecture, an energy storage system (ESS) will need to be created. This paper explains considerations, such as location, structure integrity, and cooling, which are needed in order to properly design an ESS.

EcoCAR 2: Plugging In to the Future (EcoCAR) is North America's premier collegiate automotive engineering competition, challenging students with systems-level advanced powertrain design and integration. The three-year Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) series is organized by Argonne National Laboratory, headline sponsored by the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) and General Motors (GM), and sponsored by more than 28 industry and government leaders. Fifteen university teams from across North America are challenged to reduce the environmental impact of a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu by redesigning the vehicle powertrain without compromising performance, safety, or consumer acceptability. During the three-year program, EcoCAR teams follow a real-world Vehicle Development Process (VDP) modeled after GM's own VDP. The VDP serves as a roadmap for the engineering process of designing, building and refining advanced technology vehicles.

Most of the gaseous contaminants generated inside ALS (Advanced Life Support) cabins can be degraded to some degree by microbial degradation in a biofilter. The entry of biofiltration techniques into ALS will most likely involve integration with existing physico-chemical methods. However, in this study, cabin air quality treated by only biofiltration was predicted using the one-box and biofiltration models. Based on BVAD (Baseline Values and Assumptions Document) and SMAC (Spacecraft Maximum Allowable Concentrations), ammonia and carbon monoxide will be the critical compounds for biofilter design and control. Experimentation is needed to identify the pertinent microbial parameters and removal efficiency of carbon monoxide and to validate the results of this preliminary investigation.

Bioregenerative systems for removal of gaseous contaminants are desired for long-term space missions to reduce the equivalent system mass of the air cleaning system. This paper describes an innovative design of a new biofiltration test lab for investigating the capability of biofiltration process for removal of ersatz multi-component gaseous streams representative of spacecraft contaminants released during long-term space travel. The lab setup allows a total of 24 bioreactors to receive identical inlet waste streams at stable contaminant concentrations via use of permeations ovens, needle valves, precision orifices, etc. A unique set of hardware including a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer, and a data acquisition and control system using LabVIEW™ software allows automatic, continuous, and real-time gas monitoring and data collection for the 24 bioreactors. This lab setup allows powerful factorial experimental design.

This paper reviews some applications of lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM) to compute multiphase flows. The method is based on the solution of a kinetic equation which describes the evolution of the distribution of the population of particles whose collective behavior reproduces fluid behavior. The distribution is modified by particle streaming and collisions on a lattice. Modeling of physics at a mesoscopic level enables LBM to naturally incorporate physical properties needed to compute complex flows. In multiphase flows, the surface tension and phase segregation are incorporated by considering intermolecular attraction forces. Furthermore, the solution of the kinetic equations representing linear advection and collision, in which non-linearity is lumped locally, makes it parallelizable with relative ease. In this paper, a brief review of the lattice Boltzmann method relevant to engine sprays will be presented.

Modern on-road vehicles have been making steady strides when it comes to employing technological advances featuring active safety systems. However, off-highway machines are lagging in this area and are in dire need for modernization. One chassis system that has been receiving much attention in the automotive field is the steering system, where several electric and electrohydraulic steering architectures have been implemented and steer-by-wire technologies are under current research and development activities. On the other hand, off-highway articulated steering vehicles have not adequately evolved to meet the needs of Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) as well as their end customers. Present-day hydrostatic steering systems are plagued with poor energy efficiency due to valve throttling losses and are considered passive systems relative to safety, adjustability, and comfort.

Current gasoline-gas vapor recovery system is incomplete, for it cannot adjust the vapor-liquid ratio automatically due to the change of working temperature. To solve this problem, this paper intends to design a new system and optimize its parameters. In this research, variables control method is used for tests while linear regression is used for data processing. This new system moves proportion valve away and adds a DSP control module, a frequency conversion device, and a temperature sensor. With this research, it is clearly reviewed that the vapor-liquid ratio should remains 1.0 from 0 °C to 20 °C as its working temperature, be changed into 1.1 from 20 °C to 25 °C, be changed into 1.2 from 25 °C to 30 °C, and be changed into 1.3 when the working temperature is above 30 °C.

In the last years, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have become the most important energy storage system for consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and smart grids. A LIB is composed of several unit cells. Therefore, one of the most important factors that determine the performance of a LIB are the characteristics of the unit cell. The design of LIB cells is a challenging problem since it involves the evaluation of expensive black-box functions. These functions lack a closed-form expression and require long-running time simulations or expensive physical experiments for their evaluation. Recently, Bayesian optimization has emerged as a powerful gradient-free optimization methodology to solve optimization problems that involve the evaluation of expensive black-box functions. Bayesian optimization has two main components: a probabilistic surrogate model of the black-box function and an acquisition function that guides the optimization.

The present work was directed towards the design of a sideline microphone array specifically adapted to the visualization of automotive noise sources in the 500 Hz to 2000 Hz range. The particular design philosophy followed here involved the minimization of the array redundancy: i.e., the minimization of the number of pairs of microphones that are separated by the same distance in the same directions. The performance of sixty-four element microphone arrays designed according to this principle will be illustrated through the use of simulated motor vehicle passbys. In addition, their performance will be compared with more conventional array designs: e.g., elliptical, and spiral arrays.

A procedure for simulating the dynamics of agricultural and forestry machines using mechanical system simulation software is presented. A soil/track interface model including rubber-track and steel-track was introduced as well as equations that can be used to model mechanical and hydraulic power trains commonly found in tracked vehicles. Two rubber-tracked vehicles (agricultural tractors) and two steel-tracked machines (forestry vehicles) were simulated to illustrate the technique, and some analysis results are presented. The examples given in this paper are based on the author’s research over the past several years.

It has been shown recently that the maximum penetration of the liquid phase in a vaporizing Diesel spray is relatively short compared to the overall jet penetration and that this maximum is reached in 2 - 4°CA after start of injection. This implies that the drops that are formed by atomization vaporize in a short characteristic time and length relative to other physical processes. This paper addresses an important question related to this observation: Are the vaporizing fuel drops disappearing because they reach a critical state? Related to this question is another: Under what conditions will vaporizing fuel drops reach a critical state in a Diesel engine? Single drops of pure component liquid hydrocarbons and their mixtures vaporizing in quiescent nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas environments with ambient pressures and temperatures at values typically found in Diesel engines are examined.

A novel Blended Hydraulic Hybrid transmission architecture is presented in this paper with benefits over conventional designs. This novel configuration combines elements of a hydrostatic transmission, a parallel hybrid, and a selectively connectable high pressure accumulator using passive and actively controlled logic elements. Losses are reduced compared to existing series hybrid transmissions by enabling the units to operate efficiently at pressures below the current high pressure accumulator's pressure. A selective connection to the high pressure accumulator also allows for higher system precharge which increases regenerative braking torque and energy capture with little determent to system efficiency. Finally operating as a hydrostatic transmission increases transmission stiffness (i.e. driver response) and may improve driver feel in certain situations when compared to a conventional series hybrid transmission.

This paper presents experimental results that validate eco-driving and eco-heating strategies developed for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). By exploiting vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications, traffic signal timing, and queue length estimations, optimized and smoothed speed profiles for the ego-vehicle are generated to reduce energy consumption. Next, the planned eco-trajectories are incorporated into a real-time predictive optimization framework that coordinates the cabin thermal load (in cold weather) with the speed preview, i.e., eco-heating. To enable eco-heating, the engine coolant (as the only heat source for cabin heating) and the cabin air are leveraged as two thermal energy storages. Our eco-heating strategy stores thermal energy in the engine coolant and cabin air while the vehicle is driving at high speeds, and releases the stored energy slowly during the vehicle stops for cabin heating without forcing the engine to idle to provide the heating source.

This work introduces a new design algorithm to optimize progressively folding thin-walled structures and in order to improve automotive crashworthiness. The proposed design algorithm is composed of three stages: conceptual thickness distribution, design parameterization, and multi-objective design optimization. The conceptual thickness distribution stage generates an innovative design using a novel one-iteration compliant mechanism approach that triggers progressive folding even on irregular structures under oblique impact. The design parameterization stage optimally segments the conceptual design into a reduced number of clusters using a machine learning K-means algorithm. Finally, the multi-objective design optimization stage finds non-dominated designs of maximum specific energy absorption and minimum peak crushing force.

In this work, computations of reacting diesel jets, including soot and NO, are carried out for a wide range of conditions by employing a RANS model in which an unsteady flamelet progress variable (UFPV) sub-model is employed to represent turbulence/chemistry interactions. Soot kinetics is represented using a chemical mechanism that models the growth of soot precursors starting from a single aromatic ring by hydrogen abstraction and carbon (acetylene) addition and NO is modeled using the kinetics from a sub-mechanism of GRI-Mech 3.0. Tracer particles are used to track the residence time of the injected mass in the jet. For the soot and NO computations, this residence time is used to track the progression of the soot and NO reactions in time. The conditions selected reflect changes in injection pressure, chamber temperature, oxygen concentration, and density, and orifice diameter.

Electrical connectors and terminals are widely used in the automotive industry. It is desirable to mate the electrical connections using materials or coatings with low friction force to improve the ergonomics of the assembly process while maintaining good electrical conduction over the lifetime of the vehicle. We have previously shown that plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of graphene on gold (Au) and silver (Ag) terminals can significantly reduce the insertion force (friction force during the terminal insertion process). However, the cost of this deposition method is rather high, and its high temperature process (> 400 oC) makes it impractical for materials with low melting temperatures. For example, tin (Sn) coating with a melting temperature of 232 oC is commonly used in electrical connectors, which cannot sustain the high temperature process. In this study, reduced graphene oxide was prepared using a low-cost solution process and applied onto metallic terminals.

The design of better active materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is crucial to satisfy the increasing demand of high performance batteries for portable electronics and electric vehicles. Currently, the development of new active materials is driven by physical experimentation and the designer’s intuition and expertise. During the development process, the designer interprets the experimental data to decide the next composition of the active material to be tested. After several trial-and-error iterations of data analysis and testing, promising active materials are discovered but after long development times (months or even years) and the evaluation of a large number of experiments. Bayesian global optimization (BGO) is an appealing alternative for the design of active materials for LIBs. BGO is a gradient-free optimization methodology to solve design problems that involve expensive black-box functions. An example of a black-box function is the prediction of the cycle life of LIBs.

This paper explains the basic principles behind two platform technologies that my research team has developed in the field of optical metrology and optical information processing: 1) high-speed 3D optical sensing; and 2) real-time 3D video compression and streaming. This paper will discuss how such platform technologies could benefit the automotive industry including in-situ quality control for additive manufacturing and autonomous vehicle systems. We will also discuss some of other applications that we have been working on such as crime scene capture in forensics.

Inside an automobile, hundreds of connectors and electrical terminals in various locations experience different corrosive environments. These connectors and electrical terminals need to be corrosion-proof and provide a good electrical contact for a vehicle’s lifetime. Saltwater and sulfuric acid are some of the main corrosion concerns for these electrical terminals. Currently, various thin metallic layers such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), or tin (Sn) are plated with a nickel (Ni) layer on copper alloy (Cu) terminals to ensure reliable electrical conduction during service. Graphene due to its excellent chemical stability can serve as a corrosion protective layer and prevent electrochemical oxidation of metallic terminals. In this work, effects of thin graphene layers grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) on Au and Ag terminals and thin-film devices were investigated. Various mechanical, thermal/humidity, and electrical tests were performed.

The cost and complexity of aircraft power systems limit the number of integrated system evaluations that can be performed in hardware. As a result, evaluations are often performed using emulators to mimic components or subsystems. As an example, aircraft generation systems are often tested using an emulator that consists of a bank of resistors that are switched to represent the power draw of one or more actuators. In this research, consideration is given to modern wide bandwidth emulators (WBEs) that use power electronics and digital controls to obtain wide bandwidth control of power, current, or voltage. Specifically, this paper first looks at how well a WBE can emulate the impedance of a load when coupled to a real-time model. Capturing the impedance of loads and sources is important for accurately assessing the small-signal stability of a system.