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This project was undertaken with an objective to develop methodology by formulating set of procedures that would help in achieving the end goal. Once methodology is established, it paves way to optimize the end results more effectively which results in reduced lead time during product development. Methodology can either be based on pure experimental investigations or by simulations. Combination of mathematical and empirical approach is inherently followed in simulations, which helps in reducing the testing time and overall cost. Commercial vehicles (CV) have seen paradigm shift in the fuel consumption (FC) certification approaches, with an intention to align with 2016 Paris climate agreement. Use of simulation tool like VECTO for commercial vehicle FC certification has gained momentum in Europe. Overall experience gained in commercial vehicle FC simulation has motivated us to leverage the learnings for off-road applications like agricultural tractors.

In India, B7 (a biodiesel mix of 7% by volume in diesel) has been approved for use in diesel engines. Due to the depletion of fossil fuel supplies and tight pollution requirements, alternative diesel fuel has become critical. However, given the properties of diesel, no direct renewable alternative fuel can totally replace diesel. As a result, one of the solutions may be to replace part of the diesel with ethanol. In this inquisition, the impact of various diesel-ethanol blends, counting ED7.7, ED10, ED15 and ED20, were examined on two in-use multi-cylinder engines complying to different emission norms. The two engines under consideration complies with CPCB-I and CPCB-II, which is an Indian legal requirement for stationary Genset engines. For both engines, a 5-mode steady-state test cycle was considered. For each mode, the engine’s performance characteristics, including power, torque, and BSFC, were tested and described.

Methanol fuel has attracted global attention from engine researchers since the crude oil crisis and the rise in crude oil prices in the recent years. As it is one of the possible alcoholic fuels after ethanol in an automotive application that can reduce dependence on crude oil. India has also initiated research studies on methanol since the 1980s. NITI Aayog is encouraging the use of methanol as an automotive fuel for transport sector. This desktop study includes the potentiality of methanol as an automotive fuel and the methanol roadmap for India as a biofuel in the conventional gasoline application. It has been seen that Methanol has the potential to be used as a fuel in automobiles to replace gasoline or crude oil-based fuels in terms of engine performance. According to a study, India’s methanol promotion measures will encourage more enterprises to invest in the research and construction of methanol producing plants and development of methanol-fueled engines.

The Light commercial vehicle (LCV) is primarily used for the last mile delivery and it hold the volume share of around 61% in the commercial vehicle segment. The last mile delivery services have seen a massive surge after the CoVID 19 pandemic resulting is the increase sale of LCV in last few years and is expected to grow further by 8-11% in the coming years. However, city logistic is also responsible for most pollution and noise in the city. Hence, policymakers are aiming to reduce carbon footprint by promoting the use of Electric vehicle by providing incentive to automakers though schemes like FAME I and FAME II. In order to effectively reduce the carbon footprint within city it is important to increase the use of new electric vehicle and convert the old polluting vehicles to electric. Hence, a retro fitment solution for converting used LCV to electric can help in reducing emission as well as noise pollution. Later the same solution can be offered as OE fitment solution.

Researchers are under pressure to investigate and discover ways to improve the efficacy and reduce emissions from ICE due to the depletion of energy resources and the growing concern over global warming. Hydrogen is viewed as a promising fuel and has been investigated as a potential fuel in combustion because to several desirable qualities like carbon-less content and strong flammability limitations. When equated to other alternative fuels like LPG, CNG, LNG, etc., hydrogen has inimitable qualities because it lacks carbon, making it one of the promising alternatives fuels. In order to achieve zero CO2 emissions for traffic applications in the near future, hydrogen being an automotive fuel in ICE is a solution. The ICE powered by hydrogen is prepared for that. The actual drawbacks of using hydrogen in ICE generally are manufacturing, storage, and development of the requisite infrastructure. Hydrogen can be produced in its many forms.

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems play a critical role in ensuring vehicle safety by detecting potential rear-end collisions and automatically applying brakes to mitigate or prevent accidents. This paper focuses on establishing a framework for the Verification & Validation (V&V) of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) by testing & verifying the functionality of a RADAR-based AEB ECU. A comprehensive V&V approach was adopted, incorporating both virtual and physical testing. For virtual testing, closed-loop Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) simulation technique was employed. The AEB ECU was interfaced with the real-time hardware via CAN. Data for the relevant target such as the target position, velocity etc. was calculated using an ideal RADAR sensor model running on the real-time hardware. The methodology involved conducting a series of test scenarios, including various driving speeds, obstacle types, and braking distances.

Government of India, in 2017, mandated a Side Impact Test (AIS 099 technically aligned to UN ECE Regulation No. 95.03 series of amendments) on M1 category Passenger Vehicles to ensure protection of occupants in lateral impact accident scenarios. Later, in 2022, a draft notification has been issued by the Government mandating installation of 6 airbags (2 Nos of thorax side airbags, 2 Nos of head protection or curtain airbags in addition to already mandated installation of Driver and Passenger Airbags) in all such passenger vehicles. However, the vehicles fitted with side thorax airbag and curtain airbags are proposed to be assessed as per AIS099 test only. Curtain Airbags are typically installed to protect occupant’s head from severe injuries in narrow object impacts simulated in Pole Side Impact Test Configurations. However, at present, India has not notified an equivalent standard to UN R135 demanding performance of the vehicle in pole side impact scenarios.

Following global trends of increasingly stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) and criteria pollutant regulations, India will likely introduce within the next decade equivalent Bharat Stage (BS) regulations for Diesel engines requiring simultaneous reduction in CO2 emissions and up to 90% reduction in NOx emission from current BS-VI levels. Consequently, automakers are likely to face tremendous challenges in meeting such emission reduction requirements while maintaining performance and vehicle total cost of ownership (TCO), especially in the Indian market, which has experienced significant tightening of emission regulation during the past decade. Therefore, it is conceivable that cost effective approaches for improving existing diesel engines platforms for future regulations would be of high strategic importance for automakers.

A bus is integral part of public transportation in both rural and urban areas. It is also used for scheduled transport, tourism, and school transport. Buses are the common mode of transport all over the world. The growth in economy, the electrification of public transport, demand in shared transport, etc., is leading to a surge in the demand for buses and accelerating the overall growth of the bus industry. With the increased number of buses, the issue of safety of passengers and the crew assumes special importance. The comfort of driver and passenger in the vehicle involves the vibration performance and therefore, the structural integrity of buses is critically important. Bus safety act depicts the safety and comfort of bus operations, management of safety risks, continuous improvement in bus safety management, public confidence in the safety of bus transport, appropriate stakeholder involvement and the existence of a safety culture among bus service providers.

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is a routinely used technology for the design and testing of road vehicles, including the simulation of their response to an impact. To increase automotive industry competitiveness by reducing physical test-based type approval and to improve road safety, recent initiatives have been taken by both industry and public authorities to promote the use of virtual testing through numerical simulation as an alternative way to check regulatory compliance. [1] To ensure acceptance of this alternative method, the accuracy of the simulation models and procedures needs to be assured and rated independently of the modelling process, software tools, and computing platform. Similarly, it is also imperative to understand the uncertainties emerging out of different component design parameters and analyze their sensitivity towards producing deviations in the reported results as per the requirements of the regulatory standard.

The Indian automotive industry is striving towards more safe and durable vehicles. A need was felt to study the effect of changes in axle static loads on fatigue life of the axle components. Also, there was a need to develop generic test method, as there are no test standards or generic methods available in public domain for fatigue testing of commercial vehicle axles. The study was carried out to check direct effect of change in axle loads on various connections on axle, effect of suspension configuration and force distribution, Vehicle dynamics, etc. In this paper, an India specific generic load spectra was evaluated for accelerated laboratory validation. Paper discusses the methodology as; study of heavy commercial vehicle systems, road load data collection on identified test vehicles w.r.t. test matrix finalized, India specific test loads and load spectra development, normalization of axle load spectra w.r.t to static axle weights and arriving at test guidelines.

The windscreen wiping system is mandatory requirement for automotive vehicle as per Central motor vehicle rules (CMVR). The main scope of the standard is to ensure vision zones to be wiped by wiping system to ensure maximum field of vision to the driver. The evaluation of vision zones as per IS 15802:2008 is generally determined by virtual simulation by OEMs. The limitation of virtual simulation is due to actual tolerances in vehicle, due to seat fitment, ergonomic dimensions, seat cushioning effect and wiper non-effective operation which are not taken into consideration very well off. The testing methodology described in the paper is an in-house developed test method based on SAE recommended practices. With the help of 3D H-point machine and a laser based ‘Theodolite’ equipped with horizontal and vertical angle projections from single pivot point is used to develop various vision zones on an actual vehicle windscreen as per technical data.

Engine mount is an integral part of any Internal Combustion engine. It is the medium which isolates the vibrations coming from engine being transferred to the chassis or body. Engine or power plant is the main source of unbalanced vibrations. The major role of an engine mount is to reduce those vibration levels, improve ride comfort and increase the life of an engine and its parts [1]. This work determines the Test methodology development for passenger car engine mounts in the Laboratory by using Multi-axial environment [2]. This explains the details of truly Multi-axial test rig development, Drive file creation and the Durability Testing with the maintained vehicle conditions by simulating field conditions in the laboratory. The Multi-axial test rig developed with incorporation of vehicle’s both Front Drive shafts torques and One Propeller shaft which simulates the Front wheel drives and the rear prop shaft torque.

With the recent development in virtual modelling and vehicle simulation technology, many OEM’s worldwide are using digital road profiles in virtual environment for vehicle durability load prediction and virtual design evaluation. For precise simulation results, it is important to have the tire digital twin which is the realistic representation of tire in the virtual environment. The study comprises of discussion about different types of tire models such as empirical, solid model, rigid ring model and flexural ring models such as Pacejka, MF Swift, CD tire, F tire etc. and also the complexity involved in development of these tire models. Generation of virtual tire model requires highly sophisticated test rigs as well as vehicle level testing with Wheel Force transducers and other vehicle dynamics sensors. The large number of data points generated with testing are converted in standard TYDEX format to be further processed in various software tool for virtual model generation.

Hydrogen internal combustion engines (H2ICE) offer a cost-effective solution to decarbonize transport by combining a lower carbon intensity fuel with mature and established internal combustion engine technology. While vehicles running with hydrogen have been demonstrated over the years, this fuel's physical and chemical properties require modifications and upgrades on the vehicle from an engine and system-level perspective. In addition, market-specific regulatory and economic factors can also constrain the realization of optimal hydrogen powertrain architectures. Therefore, this paper reviews the impact of hydrogen use on combustion, injection, air management, and after-treatment systems, indicating the different strategies used to enable effective H2ICE strategies from an efficiency, cost, and safety standpoint.

The Indian market for battery-powered electric vehicles (xEV) is growing exponentially in the coming years, fueled by tumbling lithium-ion battery prices and favorable government policies. Lithium-ion battery is leading in clean mobility ecosystem for electric vehicles. LiBs efficient and safe performance for tropical climatic conditions is one of the primary requirements for xEV to succeed in India. The performance of LiBs, however, is impacted due to ambient temperature as well as the heat generated within cell due to the load cycle electrochemical reaction. The acceptable operating temperature region for LiBs normally is between 20 °C to 45 °C and anything outside of this region will lead to degradation of performance and irreversible damages. Therefore, understanding the thermal behavior is very crucial for an efficient battery thermal management.

Ride is considered to be one of the crucial criterion for evaluating the performance of a vehicle. Automobile industry is striving for improvement in designs to provide superior passenger comfort in Commercial vehicles segment. In Industry, Quarter-car model has been used for years to study the vehicle’s ride dynamics. But due to lower DOF involved in quarter car, the output accuracy is somewhat compromised. This paper aims in development of a 7 DOF full-car Model to perform the ride- comfort analysis for Light Duty 4*2 Commercial Bus using MATLAB Simulink which can be used to tune the suspension design to meet the required ride-comfort criteria. Firstly, experimental data and Physical Parameters are collected by performing Practical Test on commercial Bus on different road profiles. Secondly, a Full Car Mathematical Model with 7 DOF has been developed for a bus using MATLAB Simulink R2018a.

Particulate matter is one of the major pollutant responsible for deteriorating air quality, particularly in urban centers. Information on contributing sources with the share from different sources is a first and one of the important steps in controlling pollution. Diverse sources, anthropogenic as well as natural, like industries, transport, domestic burning, construction, wind-blown dust, road dust contribute to particulate matter pollution. Receptor modeling is a scientific method which is utilized for assessment of the contribution of various sources based on chemical characteristics of particulate matter sources and ambient air particulate matter. Representative data of fractions of various chemical species in the particulate matter from the different sources i.e. source fingerprint is an essential input for the receptor modeling approach.

In present scenario, tyre industry is more focused on providing maximum extent of NVH comfort to passengers by improvising the tyre design. Noise contribution from the tyres is classified in to three regions, viz., structure-borne (tyre vibrations), air-borne (tread pattern) and cavity noise (air cavity). In general, a Finite Element (FE) model of tyre provides an inherent advantage of analyzing tyre dynamic behavior. In this paper, an attempt was made to develop a three-dimensional FE tyre model and validate the same through experimental approach. The CAD Model of the tyre was generated through 3D image scanning process. Material property extraction of tyre was carried out by Universal Testing Machine (UTM) to generate Finite Element (FE) model. For validation of tyre FE model, Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA) and Noise Transfer Function (NTF) were conducted.

To enhance the crashworthiness of electric vehicles, designing the optimized and safer battery pack is very essential. The deformed battery cell can result in catastrophic events like thermal runaway and thus it becomes crucial to study the mechanical response of battery cell. The goal of the research is to experimentally investigate the effect of mechanical deformation on Lithium-ion battery cell. The paper thoroughly studies the phenomenon of short circuiting at the time of failure. Various experiments are carried on 18650 cylindrical cells (NCA chemistry) under custom designed fume hood. The setup captures the failure modes of battery cell. The loading conditions have been designed considering the very possible physical conditions during crash event. The study has been done for radial compression, semicircular indentation, hemispherical indentation, flat circular indentation and case of three-point bending.