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The U.S. National Highway Transportation and Safety Agency's (NHTSA) early estimates of Motor Traffic Fatalities in 2009 in the United States [1] show continuing progress on improving traffic safety on the U.S. roadways. The number of total fatalities and the fatality rate per 100 Million Vehicle Miles (MVM), both show continuing declines. In the 10 year period from 1999 through 2009, the total fatalities have dropped from 41,611 to 33,963 and the fatality rate has dropped from 1.5 fatalities per 100MVM to 1.16 fatalities per 100MVM, a compound annual drop of 2.01% and 2.54% respectively. The large number of traffic fatalities, and the slowing down of the fatality rate decline, compared to the decade before, continues to remain a cause of concern for regulators.

This paper, confined to the application of hard chrome plated liners to high-speed four-stroke diesel and gasoline engines, illustrates the increase in their popularity in the United Kingdom, and the advanced production methods which make this economically possible. The need for balanced engine life has long been apparent and is even more important today, the growth of motor transport having outstripped repair facilities. Iron bore life has been surpassed by improvement in the life of other component parts in the modern diesel engine. The provision of hard chrome plated liners can restore the balance. Further development and turbocharging of diesel engines has shown the need for a bore material capable of preventing scuffing and galling at elevated temperatures. Hard chrome has already proved itself in four-stroke engines under these conditions.

“Digital Prototype” simulations have been used at DaimlerChrysler to achieve vehicle level NVH objectives. The effectiveness of these simulations to guide the design when faced with vehicle parameter uncertainties is discussed. These uncertainties include, but are not limited to, material properties, material gauges, damping, structural geometry, loads, boundary conditions and weld integrity. Manufacturing and assembly processes introduce variations in the nominal values of these parameters resulting in a scatter of vehicle level NVH simulation responses. An example of a high frequency NVH concern will be studied and modified to arrive at robust design guidance when faced with uncertainty. The validity of a “deterministic digital prototype” simulation model and its relevant role as a “trend predictor” rather than “absolute predictor” tool in guiding the design is also discussed.

Due to the rising costs of fuel and increasingly stringent regulations, auto makers are in need of technology to enable more fuel-efficient powertrain technologies to be introduced to the marketplace. Such powertrains must not sacrifice performance, safety or driver comfort. Today's engine and powertrain manufacturers must, therefore, do more with less by achieving acceptable vehicle performance while reducing fuel consumption. One effective method to achieve this is the extreme downsizing of current direct injection spark ignited (DISI) engines through the use of high levels of boosting and cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). Key challenges to highly downsized gasoline engines are retarded combustion to prevent engine knocking and the necessity to operate at air/fuel ratios that are significantly richer than the stoichiometric ratio.

Carbon and rephosphorized pre-strained sheet steels for cold drawing forming operations were studied and the tensile, high cycle fatigue and fatigue crack propagation properties were determined. The fatigue limit was found to be higher for 20% than for 1% pre-strained condition. Threshold stress intensity factors (▵Ků) of 5.29 MPa. m1/2 for rephosphorized steel and 7.07 MPa. m1/2 for carbon steel. Critical crack lenghts were calculated by ▵Ků and fatigue limit data using the Lukas-Klesnil short-crack criterion. Through fractographic analysis it was possible to determine the general behavior of tested materials near threshold.

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing is both a “language” and a “technique.” Its objective is to facilitate design, production, and inspection and, simultaneously, provide the most economic results. This paper describes the implementation and practice to accomplish these through illustrating methods to state design requirements specifically and clearly and to provide for maximum producibility, uniformity of interpretation, etc. The need to reflect a common objective for design, production, and inspection via the stated drawing requirement is emphasized. Application and interpretation of geometric characteristics (emphasizing symbology), fundamentals, rules, etc. are presented. Basis for the content of this paper is USASI Y14.5-1966 “Dimensioning and Tolerancing for Engineering Drawings.”

Over the last ten years there has been a steady growth in the market share of light-duty diesel engines, especially in Europe. At the same time, a general trend in petrol engine development has been seen, in which normal aspirated engines are being replaced by downsized turbocharged engines. Therefore, NVH engineers have to deal with new challenges. Turbochargers produce an aerodynamic noise in the frequency range above 1000Hz, which might influence the exterior and interior noise level. As a result, the additional requirement for acoustical components to reduce this flow noise is going to pose an increasing challenge for air intake system suppliers. This paper describes a new design of well-known wide band silencer first mentioned by A. Selamet, N.S.Dickey and J.M.Novak [1,2]. The silencer works according to the interference principle. The sound is guided into two or more parallel pipes of different lengths.

To prevent engine scuffing in the field a new laboratory test called the Hot Tube Test has been established in order to evaluate the high temperature stability of diesel engine oils. In a strip mining application field test using 47 bulldozers powered by the same engine type, half of the engines suffered from piston scuffing failures when operated on a variety of commercially available API CD quality SAE 30 Grade engine oils. All the field test oils have been investigated using the Hot Tube Test, and an analysis of the results indicates that it would be possible to accurately predict scuffing failures by this test method. Furthermore, the reliability of this analysis has been verified by bench engine testing on reference oils. The reasons why the Hot Tube Test predicts the anti-scuffing performance of engine oils are discussed.

Over the last decade, Climate change due to fossil fuel burning has taken centre stage in all discussions. Automotive sector has come under some flak for being one of the contributors to this Climate Change. Active steps have been taken by Vehicle Manufacturers and their Suppliers to address this issue. This sector has been facing below challenges to reduce pollutant in the air by A. Reducing Emissions, B. Increasing Energy Efficiency C. Use of Renewable Energy. One of the many alternatives by the Automotive Industry was to have a phased introduction to Electric Vehicles (EV), Hybrids, Fuel cells and other variants. As various emission norms and safety requirements takes Centre stage, it invariably, increases the weight of the vehicle. Now a days, Vehicles are having challenges to make it lightweight to achieve Range for an EV and improve fuel efficiency without sacrificing safety.

Automotive industry is a major contributor to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and waste generation. Not only do vehicles produce emissions during usage, but they also generate emissions during production phase and end of life disposal. There is an urgent need to address sustainability and circularity issues in this sector. This paper explores how circularity and CO2 reduction principles can be applied to design and production of automotive parts, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of these components throughout their life cycle. Also, this paper highlights the impact of design principles on End-of-Life Management of vehicles. As Design decisions of Component impacts up to 80% of emissions [1], it is important to focus on this phase for major contribution in reduction of emissions.

A lithium ion battery system has been developed for use in Honda's FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle. This represents the first time that Honda has employed lithium ion batteries. The battery system equals the high level of power of the ultracapacitor system used in the previous FCX vehicle but achieves a higher level of energy, contributing to various improvements in performance, such as the Clarity's superior acceleration feel and improved fuel efficiency. The system displays sufficient durability and reliability at the same time as satisfying requirements from the perspective of safety. In addition, positioning the battery system under the floor of the vehicle has increased cabin space, boosting the Clarity's commercial appeal.

The influence of engine variables on the concentration of oxides of nitrogen present in the exhaust of a multicylinder engine was studied. The concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) were measured with either a mass spectrometer or a non-dispersive infrared analyzer. The NO concentration was low for rich operation (deficient in oxygen) and increased with air-fuel ratio to a peak value at ratios slightly leaner than stoichiometric proportions. A further increase in air-fuel ratio resulted in reduced NO concentrations. Advanced spark timing, decreased manifold vacuum, increased coolant temperature and combustion chamber deposit buildup were also found to increase exhaust NO concentration. These results support either directly or indirectly the hypothesis that exhaust NO concentration is primarily a result of the peak combustion gas temperature and the available oxygen.

The results of several anti-knock studies are discussed in this paper. Road anti-knock performance for 1000 fuel blends covering the years 1940 to 1957 have been investigated. The laboratory Research octane numbers of these fuels covered the range from 80 to 105. The fuels were evaluated in 46 cars representing a cross-section of the automotive products for these years. The objective of these investigations was to determine the practical application of the laboratory to road octane rating relationships, and the effect of vehicles, and operating conditions on these relationships. The results show that there is a valid correlation between laboratory and road octane ratings. The relative importance of Research and Motor octane ratings on road performance is influenced by make of car, engine speed, throttle position, and distributor advance characteristics. It also indicated that aromatics improve, whereas olefins reduce high speed Modified Borderline ratings.

This paper presents an innovative brake booster which permits the brake assist function of the electric brake assist system to be implemented with mechanical means. The resultant significant reduction of manufacturing costs enhances the chances for a wide-spread use of this feature in all vehicle classes, thereby making an important contribution to the general improvement of traffic safety. Based on an analysis of the mechanically detectable physical variables for recognizing a panic situation and an evaluation of possible methods of mechanical valve activation, the paper presents a mass production solution and describes its functional properties. In particular, it should be noted that the possibility of controlling the braking pressure within the brake assist function even represents a functional advantage

Engineers have long been restricted in designing and manufacturing one piece, hollow composite components with complex internal geometry. Complex core pulls in the plastic tool, major concessions made in the actual component design or components joined from several pieces were the early means of producing such components. Progressive thinking led to the use of matrix materials such as sand, salt and wax, which provided a measure of flexibility in allowing designed-in undercut areas. These materials, however, lacked the capability to meet the required demands of dimensional accuracy and internal surface, as well as proving themselves unsuitable for high volume production. The concerns for repetitive dimensional accuracy, quality internal surface and high volume production capability has now been satisfied with the use of low melting temperature metal alloys.

Engineers doing squeak and rattle testing of instrument panels (IP's) have successfully used large electrodynamic vibration systems to identify sources of squeaks and rattles (S&R's). Their successes led to demands to test more IP's, i.e., to increase throughput of IP's to reflect the many design, material, and/or manufacturing process changes that occur, and to do so at any stage of the development, production, or QA process. What is needed is a radically different and portable way to find S&R's in a fraction of the time and at lower capital cost without compromising S&R detection results.

The findings presented in this paper are part of a long term project aimed at raising the science of heat transfer in internal combustion engine cooling galleries. Initial work has been undertaken by the authors and an experimental facility is able to simulate different sizes of coolant passages. External heat is applied and data for the forced convective, nucleate boiling and transition or critical heat flux (CHF) regimes has been obtained. The results highlighted in this paper attempt to quantify the effects of cooling passage surface roughness on the nucleate boiling regime. Tests have been conducted using aluminium test pieces with surface finishes described as smooth, intermediate and as-cast. It has been found that the as-cast surface increases the heat flux density in the nucleate boiling region over that of the smooth and intermediate surfaces.

Advanced diesel engines developed for the commercial market need to be adapted to the military requirements by OPERAS (Optimizing the injection pressure P, the Exhaust gas recirculation E, injection events Retard and/or Advance and the swirl ratio S). The different after treatment devices, already used or expected to be applied to diesel engines, require feed gases of appropriate properties for their efficient operation. To produce these gases some OPERAS are needed to control the diesel combustion process. Since military vehicles do not need the after treatment devices, the OPERAS of the commercial engines should be modified to meet the military requirements for high power density, better fuel economy, reduction of parasitic losses caused by the cooled EGR system, and reduction of invisible black and white smoke in the field.