Search Results

Corrosion affects all industrial sectors where metals or metal alloys are used in their structures. In the automotive industry, the continuous search for lightweight parts has increased the demand for effective corrosion protection, in order to improve vehicle performance without compromising durability and safety. In this scenario, coatings are essential elements to preserve and protect vehicle parts from various environmental aggressions. Automotive coatings can be classified into primers, topcoats, clearcoats, and specialty coatings. Primers provide corrosion resistance and promote adhesion between the substrate and topcoat. Topcoats provide color, gloss, and durability to the coating system, while clearcoats enhance the appearance and durability of the finish. Specialty coatings provide additional properties, such as scratch resistance, chemical resistance, and UV protection.

Currently the automotive industry has been under extremely important technological changes. Part of these changes are related to the way that users interact with the vehicle and fundamental components are the new digital cluster and screens. These devices have created a disruption in the way information is transmitted to the user, being essential for vehicle operation, including safety. Due to new operating conditions, multiple evaluations need to be performed, one of them is the solar temperature Load to ensure correct operation without compromising user safety. This test is required to identify the thermal performance on the screens mounted on the instrument panel. The performance identification is performed on both sides, analytical and physical. In regards finite element simulation it represents the solar chamber as the main source of heat and being the main mechanism of transmission the radiation.

The long-term weathering behavior of three different 3D printable, non-stabilized, UV cure resin formulations (A and B with thiol-ene base, and C with acrylate chemistry) was studied using tensile testing, nano-indentation, and photoacoustic infrared (FTIR-PAS) spectroscopy. To this end, type I tensile bars were printed from each resin system using a 3D printer, and were post UV-cured under a broad spectrum source. Systems A and C showed a similar trend after weathering. They first experienced an increase in modulus and tensile strength, due to additional crosslinking of the residual unreacted species. This increase in mechanical properties was followed by a drop in modulus, tensile strength, and percent elongation, due to the over-crosslinking and consequent embrittlement. System B, however, showed remarkable retention of the mechanical properties before/after weathering.

In the recent years, adjoint optimization has gained popularity in the automotive industry with its growing applications. Since its inclusion in the mainstream commercial CFD solvers and its continuously added capabilities over the years, its productive usage became readily available to many engineers who were previously limited to interfacing the customized adjoint source code with CFD solvers. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate using an adjoint solver a method to optimize duct shape that meets multiple design objectives simultaneously. To overcome one of the biggest challenges in the duct design, i.e. the severe packaging constraints, the method here uses geometrically constrained adjoint to ensure that the optimum shape always fits into the user-defined packaging space. In this work, adjoint solver and surface sensitivity calculations are used to develop the optimization method.

This paper summarizes the development of a wireless message from infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) for safety applications based on Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) under a cooperative agreement between the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partners LLC (CAMP) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). During the development of the Curve Speed Warning (CSW) and Reduced Speed Zone Warning with Lane Closure (RSZW/LC) safety applications [1], the Basic Information Message (BIM) was developed to wirelessly transmit infrastructure-centric information. The Traveler Information Message (TIM) structure, as described in the SAE J2735, provides a mechanism for the infrastructure to issue and display in-vehicle signage of various types of advisory and road sign information. This approach, though effective in communicating traffic advisories, is limited by the type of information that can be broadcast from infrastructures.

SiC devices have inherent fast switching capabilities due to their superior material properties, and are considered potential candidates to replace Si devices for traction inverters in electrified vehicles in future. However, due to the comparatively low gate threshold voltage, SiC devices may encounter oscillatory false triggering especially during fast switching. This paper analyzed the causes of false triggering, and also studied the impact of a critical parasitic parameter - common source inductance. It is shown that crosstalk is the main cause for the false triggering in the case and some positive common source inductance help to mitigate the crosstalk issue. A packaging layout method is proposed to create the positive common source inductance through layout of control terminals / busbars, and/or the use of control terminal bonded wires at different height.

Demand for enhanced infotainment systems with features like navigation, real-time traffic, music streaming service, mirroring and others is increasing, forcing automakers to develop solutions that fulfill customer needs. However, many of those systems are too expensive to be fitted to an entry-level vehicle leaving a gap in the market that fails customer’s expectation. This gap is usually filled by a smartphone which may have all the features the customer wants but in many cases it cannot be properly fitted in the vehicle due to lack of specific storage space. This paper describes how the engineering team developed an innovative, flexible and effective solution that holds a smartphone in an ergonomic location.

Along with the development and marketability of vehicles without an internal combustion engine, electrically heated surfaces within these vehicles are getting more and more important. They tend to have a quicker response while using less energy than a conventional electric heater fan, providing a comfortable temperature feel within the cabin. Due to the big area of heated surface it is important to spread the heating power in a way that different heat conduction effects to underlying materials are considered. In case an accurate sensor feedback of the targeted homogeneous surface temperature cannot be guaranteed, a thermal energy model of the heated system can help to set and maintain a comfortable surface temperature. For a heated steering wheel development project, different models have been created to meet that aim using mechanistic approaches starting with a predominantly first-order dynamics model and ending with a distributed parameter multi-feedback system.

Liquid sloshing is an important issue in ground transportation, aerospace and automotive applications. Effects of sloshing in a moving liquid container can cause various issues related to vehicle stability, safety, component fatigue, audible noise and, liquid level measurement. The sloshing phenomenon is a highly nonlinear oscillatory movement of the free-surface of liquid inside a container under the effect of continuous or momentarily excitation forces. These excitation forces can result from sudden acceleration, braking, sharp turning or pitching motions. The sloshing waves generated by the excitation forces can impact on the tank surface and cause additional vibrations. For the loads with the frequencies between 2 to 200 Hz, the structural fatigue failure is a major concern for automotive applications.

Engine air induction systems hydrocarbon trap (HC trap) designs to limit evaporative fuel emissions, have evolved over time. This paper discusses a range of HC traps that have evolved in engine air induction systems. (AIS) The early zeolite flow through HC trap utilized an exhaust catalyst technology internal stainless steel furnace brazed substrate coated with zeolite media. This HC trap was installed in the AIS clean air tube. This design was heavy, complicated, and expensive but met the urgency of the implementation of the new evaporative emissions regulation. The latest Ford Motor Company HC trap is a simple plastic tray containing activated carbon with breathable non-woven polyester cover. This design has been made common across multiple vehicle lines with planned production annual volume in the millions. The cost of the latest HC trap bypass design is approximately 5% of the original stainless steel zeolite flow through HC trap.

Model low temperature NOx adsorbers (LTNA) consisting of Pd on a ceria/zirconia washcoat on monoliths were evaluated for low temperature NOx storage under lean conditions to assess their potential for adsorbing the cold-start NOx emissions on a diesel engine during the period before the urea/SCR system becomes operational. A reactor-based transient test was performed with and without C2H4, CO/H2, and H2O to assess the effects of these species on the NOx storage performance. In the absence of C2H4 or CO/H2, H2O severely suppressed the NOx storage of these model LTNAs at temperatures below 100°C, presumably by blocking the storage sites. When C2H4 was included in the feedgas, H2O still suppressed the NOx storage below 100°C. However, the C2H4 significantly increased the NOx storage efficiency above 100°C, attributable to the formation of alkyl nitrites or alkyl nitrates on the catalyst.

This paper discusses the optimization of an automotive hydraulic steering pump pulley design for improved in-vehicle pump NVH performance. Levels of steering pump whine noise heard inside a vehicle were deemed objectionable. Vehicle and component transfer path analyses indicated that the dominant noise path for the whine noise was airborne in nature. Subsequent experimental modal analysis indicated that the steering pump pulley was a major contributor to the amount of radiated noise produced by the pump/pulley system. CAE analysis was used to further analyze the dynamic behavior of the pulley and develop an optimized design with decreased noise radiation efficiency. The results predicted with the CAE analysis were verified in-vehicle, resulting in a vehicle with acceptable steering pump whine noise performance.

Wavelets are a powerful mathematical tool used to multi-resolution time-frequency decomposition of signals, in order to analyze them in different scales and obtain different aspects of the information. Despite being a relatively new tool, wavelets have being applied in several areas of human knowledge, especially in signal processing, with emphasis in encoding and compression of image, video and audio. Based on a previous successful applications (FRAZIER, 1999) together a commitment to quality results, this paper evaluates the use of the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) as an compression algorithm to reduce the amount of data collected in road load signals (load history) which are used by the durability engineering teams in the automotive industry.

As part of a continuous research and innovation effort, Ford Motor Company has been evaluating hydrogen as an alternative fuel option for vehicles with internal combustion engines since 1997. Ford has recently designed and built an Econoline (E-450) shuttle bus with a 6.8L Triton engine that uses gaseous hydrogen fuel. Safe practices in the production, storage, distribution, and use of hydrogen are essential for the widespread public and commercial acceptance of hydrogen vehicles. Hazards and risks inherent in the application of hydrogen fuel to internal combustion engine vehicles are explained. The development of a Hydrogen Management System (H2MS) to detect hydrogen leaks in the vehicle is discussed, including the evolution of the H2MS design from exploration and quantification of risks, to implementation and validation of a working system on a vehicle. System elements for detection, mitigation, and warning are examined.

The Snook tables (Liberty Mutual Tables) are a collection of data sets compiled from studies based on a psychophysical approach to material-handling tasks. These tables are used to determine safe loads for lifting, lowering, carrying pulling, and pushing. The tables take into account different population percentiles, gender, and frequency of activity. However, while using these tables to analyze a work place, Ergonomists often have to select from discrete data points closest to the actual work place parameters thereby reducing accuracy of results. To compound the problem further, multiple interrelated variables are involved, making it difficult to analyze parameters intuitively. For example, it can be difficult to answer questions such as, does reducing the lifting height lower the recommended lifting weight, if the lifting distance is increased? To resolve such issues, this paper presents a new methodology for implementing the Snook tables using multi variable regression.

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a technology capable of meeting Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions levels of oxides of nitrogen (NOX) for diesel engines. Base metal zeolite catalysts show the best combination of thermal durability and NOX conversion activity. It is shown in this work that some base metal zeolite catalysts can store high levels of hydrocarbons (HCs). Also, base metal zeolite catalysts can catalyze oxidation of HCs under certain conditions. Oxidation of stored hydrocarbons can lead to permanent catalyst deactivation due to the exotherm generated in the SCR catalyst (over-temperature condition leading to SCR catalyst damage). This paper discusses a laboratory bench test to characterize hydrocarbon storage and burn-off characteristics of several SCR catalyst formulations, as well as engine dynamometer tests showing hydrocarbon storage and exotherm generation.

In this paper, a new technology for the design of silent transaxles is developed, where topography optimization is adopted and an artificial parameter called β is proposed as an objective function, representing an upper bound of the surface velocity. The strategy of the optimization is to minimize β while getting the surface velocities less than β. as the constraints. A numerical example of reducing transaxle's radiated noise by using the new optimization technology is given in the paper. In the example, an entire Ford transaxle system was modeled numerically, where most internal components were included. First a modal frequency velocity analysis was conducted. Then an acoustic power analysis based on the Acoustic Transfer Vector (ATV) was carried out. Finally, a topography optimization based on the β - method for the transaxle was performed to minimize the radiated noise.

Thermocouples are commonly used to measure exhaust gas temperature during automotive engineering experiments. In most cases, the raw measurements are used directly as an absolute indication of the actual exhaust gas temperature. However, in reality, the signal from a TC is only an indication of its own tip temperature. The TC indicated tip temperature can deviate significantly from the actual gas temperature due to factors such as thermal capacitance of the tip itself, and heat transfer to the exhaust pipe wall through conduction and radiation. A model has been developed that calculates the effects of these factors to provide an estimate of the actual exhaust gas temperature. Experiments were performed to validate the model under both transient and steady state engine dynamometer conditions utilizing three popular sizes of TCs. Good correlation among predictions for various TC sizes confirms the model's accuracy.

Static seating bucks have long been used as the only means to subjectively appraise the vehicle interior packages in the vehicle development process. The appraisal results have traditionally been communicated back to the requesting engineers either orally or in a written format. Any design changes have to be made separately after the appraisal is completed. Further, static seating bucks lack the flexibility to accommodate design iterations during the evolution of a vehicle program. The challenge has always been on how to build a seating buck quickly enough to support the changing needs of vehicle programs, especially in the early vehicle development phases. There is always a disconnect between what the seating buck represents and what is in the latest design (CAD), since it takes weeks or months to build a seating buck and by the time it is built the design has already been evolved. There is also no direct feedback from seating buck appraisal to the design in CAD.

The high conversion efficiency required by the modern three-way catalyst (TWC) is dependent on oxygen storage material functionality and capacity. To successfully model a TWC, it is critical that the oxygen storage function in the catalyst be adequately represented. The original oxygen storage model (a simple “bucket” model) included in one of Ford's TWC models, SIMTWC, was developed for vehicle programs meeting LEV emission standards. Application of SIMTWC to test data from vehicles targeting more stringent emission standards, such as ULEV and PZEV, revealed limitations in the accuracy of the original bucket model. To address these limitations, an improved kinetic model of oxygen storage is being developed. This new model is more kinetically-detailed than the old model.