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The current research focuses on enhancing the performance of Si solar cells by using Er2O3 (Erbium Oxide) in cubic crystalline nature serves as an anti-reflection coating material. An anti-reflective coating aims to improve the Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) of polycrystalline silicon wafers solar cells (PSSC) utilised in solar roof panels of the automotive sector. It also exhibits superior light transmittance and least light reflectance, which eventually leads to the increase EPC. Erbium oxide helps to convert low energy photons into high energy photons. The incident photons, which lies on the solar cell, gradually losses its energy to travel in a denser medium and dissipate in the form of heat energy. In order to overcome the rate of reflection, current research aims in synthesis of erbium oxide nanosheets using electrospinning deposition technique for varying deposition timings such as 1, 1.5 and 2 hours.

For the foreseeable future, On-Board Charging will be a critical feature for all EVs, as it allows greater flexibility when charging vehicles from common power points and dedicated EVSEs. The OBC (On-Board Charger) has no function while the vehicle is moving; at the same time, heavy or large OBC reduces range. So, designers must design OBCs that are both energy efficient and lightweight. In addition to surviving the rigors of the automotive environment, such as heat and vibrations, they must also be cost-competitive. Designing OBCs encapsulating multiple objectives thus becomes a necessity. However, current methods often use the “most important” objective and transform other objectives into constraints that do not truly reflect the tradeoffs among all possible designs. Simulating Multi-Objective Optimization methods allow for an in-depth exploration of the solution and tradeoffs.

This paper focuses on a low-cost simulation of a control device that automates the operation of an existing suspension test rig. The rig has a few limitations: it must be manually controlled, the load applied cannot be specified, and the deflection must be manually measured. A suspension setup can't be checked for different road profiles, either. The proposed control system in this paper effectively automates the process of suspension spring load testing at a cost that is comparable to that of a fully automated test rig on the market, while also expanding the scope of its capabilities. SIMSCAPE was used to map simulation models of both the actual test rig and the updated test rig control system. On both rigs, the results of evaluating suspension components were simulated, and the resulting graphs were compared.

Biogas is developing as a possible replacement for fossil fuels as the globe shifts to sustainable energy sources. Organic waste, including food waste, agricultural waste, and sewage, decomposes to produce biogas. Biogas is a fuel that can be used to create electricity, heat homes, and power vehicles. The popularity of electric cars (EVs) is rising as a result of their zero emissions. EVs and biogas can work together to create a sustainable transportation option. The viability of EV charging stations powered by biogas is the main topic of this techno-economic inquiry. The study involves the evaluation of the technical and economic elements of the proposed system. The technical aspects cover power generation, the EV charging system, the biogas storage system, the biogas production process, and the biogas purification process. The capital cost, operating cost, and revenue from the charging station are all considered economic factors.

Controlling thermal dissipation by operating components in car batteries requires a heat management design that is of utmost importance. As a proactive cooling method, the usage of PCM (Phase Change Materials) to regulate battery module temperature is suggested. Even at lower flow rates, liquid cooling has a heat transfer coefficient that is 1.5–3 times better. The rate of global cell production has increased today from 4,000 to 100,000 cells per day. Future-proof Li (metal) battery chemistry with a 3x increase in energy density. Ineffective thermal management of the battery is the root of the issue. In order to optimise battery modules, it is important to identify likely failure modes and causes. The medium used to carry heat from the battery over its passage duration at various operating temperatures is a variety of phase-change materials. The latent heat is significant, and many vegetable fats derived from fatty acids are more effective than salt hydrates and paraffin.

The energy demand of the world is keep increasing, major share of the demand is compensated by non-renewable fossil fuels. Automotive sector consumes a huge amount of fossil fuels, as majority of the segment use internal combustion as a prime mover. In the present era researches are carried to figure out the suitable replacements for fossil fuels to attain sustainable environment. One of the major challenge and keen interest of everyone is on waste management, several researches are aimed to bridge the gap between energy demand and waste management. In such way biofuels came into limelight a decade ago, still numerous works are carried in the area for creating socio economic friendly environment. Enormous studies have been carried out to assess their performance in the internal combustion engines, here in the present study performance of the working material against the biodiesel is studied.

Increasing advancement in automotive technologies ensures that many more lightweight metals become added to the automotive components for the purpose of light weighting and passenger safety. The accidents are unexpected incidents most drivers cannot be avoided that trouble situation. Crash studies are among the most essential methods for enhancing automobile safety features. Crash simulations are attempting to replicate the circumstances of the initial crash. Frontal crashes are responsible for occupant injuries and fatalities 42% of accidents occur on frontal crash. This paper aims at studying the frontal collision of a passenger car frame for frontal crashes based on numerical simulation of a 35 MPH. The structure has been designed to replicate a frontal collision into some kind of inflexible shield at a speed of 15.6 m/s (56 km/h). The vehicle’s exterior body is designed by CATIA V5 R20 along with two material properties to our design.

The upcoming Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) emission legislation has put enormous pressure on the future of small diesel engines which are widely used in the Indian market. The present work investigates the emission reduction potential of a common rail direct injection single cylinder diesel engine by adopting a holistic approach of lowering the compression ratio, boosting the intake air and down-speeding the engine. Experimental investigations were conducted across the entire operating map of a mass-production, light-duty diesel engine to examine the benefits of the proposed approach and the results are quantified for the modified Indian drive cycle (MIDC). By reducing the compression ratio from 18:1 to 14:1, the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and soot emissions are reduced by 40% and 75% respectively. However, a significant penalty in fuel economy, unburned hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are observed with the reduced compression ratio.

The ignition quality of a fuel is described by its cetane number. Experimental methods used to determine cetane number employ Co-operative fuel research (CFR) engine and Ignition quality tester (IQT) which are expensive, have less repeatability and require skilled operation, and hence least preferred. There are many prediction models reported, which involve number of double bonds and number of carbon atoms whose determination is not direct. Using models that relate biodiesel composition to its cetane number is limited by the range of esters involved. Hence, a model to predict cetane number of biodiesels that addresses the limitations of the existing models, without ignoring the influence of factors such as degree of unsaturation and number of carbon atoms, is needed. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) could be one such method.

This paper presents the experimental investigation of combustion stability and nano-particle emissions from the CNG-diesel RCCI engine. A modified automotive diesel engine is used to operate in RCCI combustion mode. An open ECU is used to control the low and high reactivity fuel injection events. The engine is tested for fixed engine speed and two different engine load conditions. The tests performed for various port-injected CNG masses and diesel injection timings, including single and double diesel injection strategy. Several consecutive engine cycles are recorded using in-cylinder combustion pressure measurement system. Statistical and return map techniques are used to investigate the combustion stability in the CNG-diesel RCCI engine. Differential mobility spectrometer is used for the measurement of particle number concentration and particle-size and number distribution. It is found that advanced diesel injection timing leading to higher cyclic combustion variations.

Stringent emission regulations on one hand and increasing demand for better fuel economy along with lower noise levels on the other hand require adoption of advanced common-rail direct-injection technologies in diesel engines. In the present work, a small 0.9-l, naturally aspirated, two-cylinder, common-rail direct-injection diesel engine is used for the analysis of combustion noise at different engine operating conditions. Experiments are conducted at different loads and engine speeds, incorporating both single and multiple (i.e. pilot and main) injections along with different injection timings. In the case of multiple injections, the influence of pilot injection quantity is also evaluated on the combustion noise while maintaining the same load. In-cylinder pressure was recorded with the resolution of 0.1 crank angle degree, and it was used for the quantitative analysis of noise assessed from the resulting cylinder pressure spectra, and sound pressure level.

In a direct-injection (DI) engine, charge motion and mixture preparation are among the most important factors deciding the performance and emissions. This work was focused on studying the effect of injector positioning on fuel-air mixture preparation and fuel impingement on in-cylinder surfaces during the homogeneous mode of operation in a naturally aspirated, small bore, 0.2 l, light-duty, air-cooled, four-stroke, spark-ignition engine modified to operate under the DI mode. A commercially available, six-hole, solenoid-operated injector was used. Two injector locations were identified based on the availability of the space on the cylinder head. One location yielded the spray-guided (SG) configuration, with one of the spray plumes targeted towards the spark plug. In the second location, the spray plumes were targeted towards the piston top in a wall-guided (WG) configuration so as to minimize the impingement of fuel on the liner.

In this work methanol was port injected while diesel was injected using a common rail system in a single cylinder non-road CI engine. Experiments were conducted with single (SPI) and double (DPI - pilot and main) injection of the directly injected diesel at 75% load and at a constant speed of 1500 rpm. The effects of methanol to diesel energy share (MDES) and injection scheduling on combustion stability, efficiency and emissions were evaluated. Initially, in the SPI mode, the methanol to diesel Energy Share (MDES) was varied, while the injection timing of diesel was always fixed for best brake thermal efficiency (BTE). Increase in the MDES resulted in a reduction in NOx and smoke emissions because of the high latent heat of vaporization of methanol and the oxygen available. Enhanced premixed combustion led to a raise in brake thermal efficiency (BTE). Coefficient of variation of IMEP, peak pressure and BTE were deteriorated which limited the usable MDES to 43%.

In lieu of the drastic growth of the vehicle population, there is a huge consumption of fossil fuels and mineral oils for mobility. This leads to depletion in fossil fuels and mineral oils which are the by-products of petroleum. These fossil fuels can’t sustain for a long period of time because of its toxicity. In order to reduce the usage of existing mineral oil for lubrication, a source of non-edible oil from Jatropha curcus is processed as jatropha methyl ester (JME). It is holding high viscosity, density and easy blend with base oil. In this current work, the wear resistance of the lubricating oil is enhanced by the addition of nano-copper oxide particle blend with the base oil. The emission performance and tribological behavior have been experimentally tested in 98.2CC two-stroke air cooled engine. The 20% of JME blend with CuO nano particle provides better emission performance and wear characteristics than the other combination of blends.

Biodiesel makes an attractive option to replace fossil diesel owing to its applicability in diesel engines without major modifications. An increase in NO emissions with biodiesel compared to diesel is a major concern for its wider use. Blending alcohols, such as methanol, with biodiesel is a potential remedy to mitigate NO formation, as suggested by experiments. However, computational investigations studying the effect of biodiesel-methanol blends on NO formation are scarce. A combined experimental and computational approach is adopted here to investigate the NO formation mechanism with neat biodiesel and biodiesel-methanol blend fueled light duty diesel engine. Firstly, a new compact kinetic model is utilized consisting of oxidation reactions for methyl butanoate and n-dodecane as a surrogate for biodiesel. A surrogate is defined to represent biodiesel based on a combined property and functional group based approach.

Severe air pollution in cities caused largely by vehicular emissions, which requires urgent remedial measures. As automobiles are indispensable modes of personal and public mobility, pre-emptive efforts are necessary to reduce the adverse effects arising from their operation. A significant improvement in air quality can be achieved through large-scale introduction of vehicles with extremely low emission such as hybrid-electric and zero emission vehicles. Range extension of electric vehicles (EVs) is also of utmost importance to alleviate the handicap of restricted mileage of purely plug-in EVs as compared to conventional vehicles. This paper presents development of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack used for the range extender electric vehicles. The Fuel cell stack for range extender vehicle operated in a dead end mode using hydrogen and air as open cathode.

Improving vehicle performance in terms of both torque and power is a strong customer need in both conventional and electric vehicles. In this work, different two speed automatic transmission (AT) concepts are developed to improve the energy efficiency and performance of battery electric two wheelers. Developed transmission systems are simple, compact and cost effective and results in relatively high energy efficiency of an electric motor. The unique shift control strategy ensures motor to operate at higher efficiency zones to minimize the overall energy consumption. Virtual simulations of electric vehicle were carried out for different driving conditions and optimal transmission ratios were determined. Mechanical behaviors such as gear shift characteristics, linear and angular velocities, inertial forces of each components are analyzed by using Multi body dynamics simulation. Forces predicted here are further used for durability studies of these components.

Gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines have gained popularity in the recent times because of lower fuel consumption and exhaust emissions compared to that of the conventional port fuel injection (PFI) engine. But, in these engines, the mixture formation plays an important role which affects combustion, performance and emission characteristics of the engine. The mixture formation, in turn, depends on many factors of which fuel injector location and orientation are most important parameters. Therefore, in this study, an attempt has been made to understand the effect of fuel injector location and nozzle-hole orientation on the mixture formation, performance and emission characteristics of a GDI engine. The mixture stratification inside the combustion chamber is characterized by a parameter called “stratification index” which is based on average equivalence ratio at different zones in the combustion chamber.

Alcohols are potential blending agents for diesel that can be effectively used in compression ignition engines. This work investigates the use of n-butanol as a blending component for diesel fuel using experiments and simulations. Dodecane was selected as a surrogate for diesel fuel and various concentrations of n-butanol were added to study ignition characteristics. Ignition delay times for different n-butanol/dodecane blends were measured using the ignition quality tester at KAUST (KR-IQT). The experiments were conducted at pressure of 21 and 18 bar, temperature ranging from 703-843 K and global equivalence ratio of 0.85. A skeletal mechanism for n-dodecane and n-butanol blends with 203 species was developed for numerical simulations. The mechanism was developed by combining n-dodecane skeletal mechanism containing 106 species and a detailed mechanism for all the butanol isomers.

Effective control of exhaust emissions from modern diesel engines requires the use of aftertreatment systems. Elevated aftertreatment component temperatures are required for engine-out emissions reductions to acceptable tailpipe limits. Maintaining elevated aftertreatment components temperatures is particularly problematic during prolonged low speed, low load operation of the engine (i.e. idle, creep, stop and go traffic), on account of low engine-outlet temperatures during these operating conditions. Conventional techniques to achieve elevated aftertreatment component temperatures include delayed fuel injections and over-squeezing the turbocharger, both of which result in a significant fuel consumption penalty. Cylinder deactivation (CDA) has been studied as a candidate strategy to maintain favorable aftertreatment temperatures, in a fuel efficient manner, via reduced airflow through the engine.