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Structural adhesives are widely used across the automotive industry for several reasons like scale-up of structural performance and enabling multi-material and lightweight designs. Development engineers know in general about the effects of adding adhesive to a spot-welded structure, but they want to quantify the benefit of adding adhesives on weight reduction or structural performance. A very efficient way is to do that by applying analytical tools. But, in most of the relevant non-linear load cases the classical lightweight theory can only help to get a basic understanding of the mechanics. For more complex load cases like full car crash simulations, the Finite Element Method (FEM) with explicit time integration is being applied to the vehicle development process. In order to understand the benefit of adding adhesives to a body structure upfront, new FEM simulation tools need to be established, which must be predictive and efficient.

During the development of a new friction material, besides the interface between lining/drum is also fundamental take in account all aspects involving the attachment of the linings on the brake shoes. This paper presents an optimization approach to the development and manufacturing parameters of brake linings, applied on medium and heavy duty commercial vehicles, aiming to assure the correct specification of the riveted joint clamp forces. These evaluations were conducted based on the quality tools documents and the theoretical aspects of the product usage as well as the modeling of key elements of the referred mechanism throughout various known applications. A calculation methodology was developed based on brake geometry, its generated forces and braking reactions required for each vehicle family.

In modeling of engine fuel-air mixing, it is desired to be able to predict fuel spray atomization under different injection and ambient conditions. In this work, a previously developed sheet atomization model was studied for this purpose. For sprays from a pressure-swirl injector, it is assumed in the model that the fuel flows out the injector forming a conical liquid film (sheet), and the sprays are formed due to the disintegration of the sheet. Modified formulations are proposed to estimate sheet parameters including sheet thickness and velocity at the nozzle exit. It was found that the fuel flow rate of a swirl injector satisfied the correlation well. Computations of correlation well. Computations of the sprays injected in an engine with a side-mounted injector were performed for conditions that duplicated a set of experiments performed in an optical engine. The computed results were compared with the spray images obtained from the optical engine using elastic (Mie) scattering.

The ability to evaluate the bending fatigue behavior of carburized low alloy steels in a laboratory and relate these measurements to performance of high contact ratio helical gears is important to the design and development of transmissions. Typical methods of evaluating bending fatigue performance of carburized gear steels do not directly represent helical planetary gears because they lack the geometric and loading conditions of planetary pinions. The purpose of this study is twofold; 1) development of a lab fatigue test to represent the fatigue performance of planetary pinion gears tested in a dynamometer and 2) evaluation of the influence of alloy content on bending fatigue performance of two steel alloys. The steels under evaluation were modified 8620M and 4615M alloys machined into bend bars with a notch representing a gear root and carburized to a case depth of approximately 0.35 mm (using the same carburizing cycle as the planetary pinion gears).

The Multi Material Lightweight Vehicle (MMLV) developed by Magna International and Ford Motor Company is a result of a US Department of Energy project DE-EE0005574. The project demonstrates the lightweighting potential of a five passenger sedan, while maintaining vehicle performance and occupant safety. Prototype vehicles were manufactured and limited full vehicle testing was conducted. The Mach-I vehicle design, comprised of commercially available materials and production processes, achieved a 364kg (23.5%) full vehicle mass reduction, enabling the application of a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine resulting in a significant environmental benefit and fuel reduction. This paper reviews the mass reduction and structural performance of aluminum, magnesium, and steel components for a lightweight multi material door design for a C/D segment passenger vehicle. Stiffness, durability, and crash requirements are assessed.

A plastic material database and decision analysis chart have been developed in order to select materials for product applications. The database, which now contains thirty-five thermoplastic and four polyurea materials, separates related material data into four categories; Customer/Vehicle Owner Environment. Assembly Plant Environment, Manufacturing/Molding Concerns, and Mechanical Properties. Currently being updated to expand from Multiplan (spread sheet) to Oracle (relational), this database will achieve ease of maintenance and retrieval. This user-friendly, menu-driven program will be linked with a database management system that will be used in future design analysis to develop cost effective optimum designs.

The Ford GT is a high performance sports car designed to compete with the best that the global automotive industry has to offer. A critical enabler for the performance that a vehicle in this class must achieve is the stiffness and response of the frame structure to the numerous load inputs from the suspension, powertrain and occupants. The process of designing the Ford GT spaceframe started with a number of constraints and performance targets derived through vehicle dynamics CAE modeling, crash performance requirements, competitive benchmarking and the requirement to maintain the unique styling of the GT40 concept car. To achieve these goals, an aluminum spaceframe was designed incorporating 35 different extrusion cross-sections, 5 complex castings, 4 smaller node castings and numerous aluminum stampings.

The 2005 Ford GT high performance sports car was designed and built in keeping with the heritage of the 1960's LeMans winning GT40 while maintaining the image of the 2002 GT40 concept vehicle. This paper reviews the technical challenges in designing and building a super car in 12 months while meeting customer expectations in performance, styling, quality and regulatory requirements. A team of dedicated and performance inspired engineers and technical specialists from Ford Motor Company Special Vehicle Teams, Research and Advanced Engineering, Mayflower Vehicle Systems, Roush Industries, Lear, and Saleen Special Vehicles was assembled and tasked with designing the production 2005 vehicle in record time.

The objective was to engineer a world-class supercar body that faithfully reproduces the 2002 Concept and pays homage to the 1960's road racer. The car had to be designed, developed and launched in 24 months, while meeting tough requirements for function, weight, occupant package and aerodynamics. Challenging features such as the cantilevered door, “clamshell” engine decklid and a deeply contoured hood were to be included. This paper will discuss how a dedicated team of enthusiasts can have a flexible approach to the engineering process, material selections and manufacturing processes to achieve the designer's vision in 24 months (Figure 1).

Optimizing heat protection for underbody and underhood components, using non-CFD heat transfer CAE tools, requires the estimation of local convective heat transfer coefficients. This estimate, in turn requires knowledge of the local air velocity. Currently available methods for obtaining this velocity at several vehicle locations have been impractical and expensive for use in over-the-road testing. This paper presents the design, fabrication, and field testing results of a 26 mm diameter spherical transducer which measures the local heat transfer coefficient directly. The transducer contains three thermocouples and a heater. It is calibrated to correlate the coefficient with the air velocity. Drawing less than 0.1 A, a number of them can be powered by the vehicle battery with negligible drain. The data acquisition consists of sampling three thermocouples per spherical transducer.