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This paper proposes the CFD simulation of the oil splashing within the discs’ chamber of a novel concept for axle dry braking system in off-highway vehicles. The system completely removes the lubricating oil from the discs’ chamber during the not-engaged configuration of the friction plates and it quickly restore it at the beginning of the braking stage when the discs’ cooling becomes crucial, thus ensuring a significant reduction of the power losses. The CFD analysis of the real component is performed to predict the efficiency of the system in terms of both the time needed to replenish the discs’ chamber when brake is actuated, and the hydraulic torque exerted by the splashing of the oil. The entire three-dimensional geometry of the domain is accurately discretized, and the multi-phase flow nature is addressed by means of the volume of fluid approach.

The conventional internal combustion engines continue to dominate many fields like transportation, agriculture and power generation. Moreover, apprehension over oil price restriction has created an unprecedented demand for fuel economy. Diesel engine is mostly preferred for its higher thermal efficiency, high-torque and outstanding longevity. In recent days with flooded technologies, Uniqueness and the Differentiation of Product play vital role for a successful business in Auto Industry. The present invention is related to the Challenges of Design & Development of Conventional Diesel Engine to meet the stringent emission & performance requirements (BS-IV) of Internal Combustion engines, and more particularly to achieve the targets with conventional Fuel Injection Systems (Non-electronic Fuel Injectors, In-Line Fuel Injection Pump-Governed Electronically) with required sub-systems on IC engine.

This paper discusses the development of an all speed governed diesel-natural gas dual fuel engine for agricultural farm tractor. A 45 hp, 2.9 liters diesel-natural gas dual fuel engine with a novel closed loop secondary fuel injection system was developed. A frugal approach without any modification of the base mechanical diesel fuel injection system was followed. This approach helped to minimize the cost impact, while meeting performance and emissions at par with neat diesel operation. Additional cost on gas injection system is redeemed by cost savings on diesel fuel. The dual fuel technology developed by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., substitutes on an average approximately 40% of diesel with compressed natural gas, meeting the TREM III A emission norms for dual fuel while meeting all application requirements. The governing performance of the tractor was found to be superior than base diesel tractor.

Rotavator is an active tillage implement for breaking the Soil and for the preparation of seed bed for cultivation. The Farmers are currently facing problem due to usage of sub optimal speed of Rotavator which results in more fuel consumption, takes more time for completion of operation. Also, the Current Rental models work on Tractor + Implement as rental combination and customer not able to rent Rotavator as a standalone implement due to non-availability of Tracking information such as hours of utilization on Rotavator. Farmers not able to maintain the service periodicity, if oil change not done in prescribed duration then it may result in improper maintenance and breakdown of the Rotavator. To overcome these problems a smart Rotavator developed consists of an electronic unit fitted on the Rotavator shaft to measure the speed of the shaft rotation and in turn convert to Rotavator speed and also able to convert into Hours of usage based on the starting and stopping of the rotavator.

This paper deals with designing and development methodology of Automatic Electric Start (AES) system for power tiller, which has horizontal diesel engine as prime mover. Designing of AES system constitutes of designing of Starter Motor, Starter Motor Bracket, Flywheel Ring Gear, Battery, Wire Harness Circuit, Fan Alternator and then development these components as integrated system prototype. Unlike tractor market, AES system are not so common in Indian power tiller market therefore, unprecedented design approach towards design of AES system on power tiller engine has been presented in this paper. An engine without AES system requires of huge amount farmers physical effort for starting whereby farmers fatigue levels are always on higher side due to repeated starting task. AES system on power tiller has made 0 N force requirement to start engine which was approximately 92 N earlier.

Range of an electric vehicle is one of the most prominent decisive factors for a person willing to buy an electric vehicle. In this paper an algorithm is developed to estimate the load carried by the truck or passengers in case of a bus and accordingly switch between ECO, ECO+, Normal, Power, and Power+ modes. This is similar to the ECO/Power switches available in the vehicles, but here auto switching is done to reduce driver dependability and allow vehicle to operate in 5 different modes without driver intervention. Optimum utilization of available torque is done for efficient operation of the vehicle in all load and road conditions. The model-based software development using MATLAB Simulink is used to develop an algorithm which will switch to Power or Power+ torque mode if the vehicle is fully laden or if the vehicle is going on a steep hill, whereas the algorithm will switch to ECO+ or ECO mode if the vehicle is empty or carrying less load.

Climate change is a global phenomenon now and countries across the globe are working towards reducing emissions by bringing in stricter legislations on emissions and CO2. India is also facing huge challenges on pollutions in large cities. Reports suggest that 7 of the 10 most polluted cities of the world lie in India. The growing public opinion towards cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gaseous emissions has sensitized the matter and has led to drafting of strict emission legislations in India during the past few years. The leap frogging from BS 4 to BS 6 in 2020 by skipping BS 5 norms showed the intent of the GOI towards emission reduction. The BS 6 legislation is not limiting to meeting norms with legislative emission cycle but will also focus from year 2023 onto real driving emissions on actual roads. GOI is also proposing to implement fleet CO2 emission norms (CAFÉ) by 2022 to regulate the CO2 emissions.

This paper discusses the test setup and methodology required to validate complete lift axle assembly for simulating the real time test track data. The correlation of rig vs track is discussed. The approach for reduction of validation time by eliminating few of the non-damaging tracks/events, its correlation with real life condition is discussed, and details are presented. With increased competition, vehicle development time has reduced drastically in recent past. Bench test procedure using accelerated test cycle discussed in this paper will help to reduce development time and cost. Process briefed in this paper can also be used for similar test specification for other structural parts or complete suspension system of heavy commercial vehicles.

Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) coolers are commonly used in on-road and off-road diesel engines to reduce the recirculated gas temperature in order to reduce NOx emissions. One of the common performance behaviors for EGR coolers in use on diesel engines is a reduction of the heat exchanger effectiveness, mainly due to particulate matter (PM) deposition and condensation of hydrocarbons (HC) from the diesel exhaust on the inside walls of the EGR cooler. According to previous studies, typically, the effectiveness decreases rapidly initially, then asymptotically stabilizes over time. Prior work has postulated a deposit removal mechanism to explain this stabilization phenomenon. In the present study, five field aged EGR cooler samples that were used on construction machines for over 10,000 hours were analyzed in order to understand the deposit structure as well as the deposit composition after long duration use.

Waste heat recovery based on an Organic Rankine Cycle is a technology proposed for the reduction of the fuel consumption of heavy-duty vehicles. This technology is currently not simulated by VECTO, the tool used in Europe to certify the fuel consumption and CO2 emissions of new heavy-duty vehicles. In this work, a class 5 lorry equipped with a prototype Organic Rankine Cycle system is tested on the chassis dyno during steady state and transient driving cycles, with the waste heat recovery enabled and disabled. The waste heat recovery system enabled a brake specific fuel consumption reduction of 3.1% over the World Harmonized Vehicle Cycle, 2.5% during the official EU Regional Delivery Cycle, and up to 6.5% at certain engine operating points during the fuel consumption mapping cycle. A model of the vehicle was created in VECTO based on the experimental data. The fuel consumption map of the engine with and without the Organic Rankine Cycle was derived from the steady-state experiments.

The importance of clutch in a vehicle’s performance is not new to the automotive, commercial or agricultural sectors, so is the importance of the clutch life when it comes to the durability of a vehicle. In process of making the machines more and more efficient, one can observe a steady reduction in the overall mass of the vehicle and the parts in it. While the parts were heavier, and the friction lining surfaces were more than adequate, the life of clutch has been the best. But with reduction of the overall mass’, the energy has lesser amount of reservoir to dissipate and is being liberated in the form of heat, rising the overall temperatures. This leads to an early wear or even a burn in the clutch. In such scenario, it is necessary to estimate accurately the energy dissipation through a defined cycle to understand the clutch performance. Although different methods exist to evaluate energy, most cases include obtaining a high amount of sophisticated data.

Rollover has for long been a major safety concern for trucks, and will be even more so as automated driving is envisaged to becoming a key element of future mobility. A natural way to address rollover is to extend the capabilities of current active-safety systems with a system that intervenes by steering or braking actuation when there is a risk of rollover. Assessing and predicting the rollover is usually performed using rollover indices calculated either from lateral acceleration or lateral load transfer. Since these indices are evaluated based on different physical observations it is not obvious how they can be compared or how well they reflect rollover events in different situations. In this paper we investigate the implication of the above mentioned rollover indices in different critical maneuvers for a heavy 8×4 twin-steer truck.

Increasing challenges on reducing fuel consumption has opened the new directions in Powertrain technologies. The example of such technology implemented in geared transmission is the usage of novel type of gears with 3D point system of mesh engaging which was invented, patented and developed by Alexei P. Popov. The paper identifies the milestones of R&D that were undertaken to create the new type of geared transmission. Using the Winkler hypothesis Alexei P. Popov has developed and designed new type of point contact which made possible to lower a contact stresses in comparison to the values of a contact stresses for teeth having linear contacting interaction. The new shapes of tooth were invented and the methodological tools were developed for engineers providing the formulas for design and forming geometry of tooth with high stress capacity.

A new turbocharged 60° 2.7L 4V-V6 gasoline engine has been developed by Ford Motor Company for both pickup trucks and car applications. This engine was code named “Nano” due to its compact size; it features a 4-valves DOHC valvetrain, a CGI cylinder block, an Aluminum ladder, an integrated exhaust manifold and twin turbochargers. The goal of this engine is to deliver 120HP/L, ULEV70 emission, fuel efficiency improvements and leadership level NVH. This paper describes the upfront design and optimization process used for the NVH development of this engine. It showcases the use of analytical tools used to define the critical design features and discusses the NVH performance relative to competitive benchmarks.

Heavy-duty diesel engines are used in different application areas, like long-haul, city distribution, dump truck and building and construction industry. For these wide variety of areas, the engine performance needs to comply with the real-world legislation limits and should simultaneously have a low fuel consumption and good drivability. Meeting these requirements takes substantial development and calibration effort, where an optimal fuel consumption for each application is not always met in practice. TNO's Integrated Emission Management (IEM) strategy, is able to deal with these variations in operating conditions, while meeting legislation limits and obtaining on-line cost optimization. Based on the actual state of the engine and aftertreatment, optimal air-path setpoints are computed, which balances EGR and SCR usage.

Starting from the USA and followed by the European Union, legal requirements concerning “Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems” (TPMS) for passenger cars and light trucks will be introduced in China as well and therefore in the third of the three largest automobile markets worldwide. Changes of pressure dependent physical tire properties such as dynamic roll radius and a certain tire eigenfrequency, which are included in the ESC-wheel speed signals, indicates pressure loss in an indirect manner. Systems with corresponding working principles are called “indirect Tire Pressure Monitoring System” (iTPMS). Since the tire is a structural element with varying characteristics according to the design parameters, the roll radius and frequency behavior due to pressure loss is variable as well. As a consequence, tires have to be evaluated regarding there compatibility to iTPMS during the vehicle development process.

One of the remaining challenges in the simulation of the aerodynamics of ground vehicles is the modeling of the airflows around the spinning tires and wheels of the vehicle. As in most advances in the development of simulation capabilities, it is the lack of appropriately detailed and accurate experimental data with which to correlate that holds back the advance of the technology. The flow around the wheels and tires and their interfaces with the vehicle body and the ground is a critical area for the development of automobiles and trucks, not just for aerodynamic forces and moments, and their result on fuel economy and vehicle handling and performance, but also for the airflows and pressures that affect brake cooling, engine cooling airflows, water spray management etc.

A thermo-acoustic engine is a device converting thermal energy into high amplitude acoustic waves that can be harvested, for example, to obtain electricity. The core of the device is a stack/regenerator along which a temperature gradient is created using one hot and one cold heat exchanger. Correctly designed, the thermal interaction between the working fluid and the regenerator assists in amplifying incident acoustic waves. Previous studies have indicated good efficiency obtained with a system of low geometrical complexity. However, for the practical application of this technique it is vital to understand and identify critical design parameters and operating conditions. This is of special interest in automotive applications where the operating conditions vary significantly over a drive cycle. This works aims at providing a framework for studying the net power generation over a drive cycle.

Annual fuel use for sleeper cab truck rest period idling is estimated at 667 million gallons in the United States, or 6.8% of long-haul truck fuel use. Truck idling during a rest period represents zero freight efficiency and is largely done to supply accessory power for climate conditioning of the cab. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s CoolCab project aims to reduce heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) loads and resulting fuel use from rest period idling by working closely with industry to design efficient long-haul truck thermal management systems while maintaining occupant comfort. Enhancing the thermal performance of cab/sleepers will enable smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective idle reduction solutions. In addition, if the fuel savings provide a one- to three-year payback period, fleet owners will be economically motivated to incorporate them.

1 One issue raised by the use of austenitic stainless steels in commercial vehicles is the increase in material costs. To reduce those material costs, a nitric acid electropolishing treatment was applied to SUS436L (18 Cr - 1.5 Mo - 0.4 Nb) and corrosion tests were conducted to compare its corrosion resistance to that of SUS316L(16 Cr - 12 Ni - 2 Mo). Compared to SUS316L, SUS436L subjected to nitric acid electropolishing indicated superior corrosion resistance. In addition, XPS and TEM analyses showed that while the SUS436L passivation film layer contained approximately twice as much chromium, its thickness was also generally reduced by approximately half, to 2 nm. These results suggest that electropolishing with nitric acid, which is highly oxidative, formed a fine passivation film.