Search Results

Electromagnetic suspension systems have increasingly gained widespread attention due to their superiority in improving ride comfort while providing fast response, excellent controllability and high mechanical efficiency, but their applications are limited due to the accuracy of the underlying control actuation tracking. For addressing this problem, this study presents a novel hierarchical control strategy for an electromagnetic active suspension (EMAS) system equipped with an electromagnetic actuator (EMA) structure. The structure of the EMA device and the working principle of the motion conversion model are introduced in detail first, and the motion conversion equation is derived based on the force-torque relationship. Based on this, a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) control method is proposed to be applied to a half-vehicle suspension system to improve the vibration isolation performance of the vehicle and ensure the ride comfort.

The driving risk field model offers a feasible approach for assessing driving risks and planning safe trajectory in complex traffic scenarios. However, the conventional risk field fails to account for the vehicle size and acceleration, results in the same trajectories are generated when facing different vehicle types and unable to make safe decisions in emergency situations. Therefore, this paper firstly introduces the acceleration and vehicle size of surrounding vehicles for improving the driving risk model. Then, an integrated decision-making and planning model is proposed based on the combination of the novelty risk field and model predictive control (MPC), in which driving risk and vehicle dynamics constraints are taken into consideration. Finally, the multiple driving scenarios are designed and analyzed for validate the proposed model.

Suspension kinematics and compliance strongly influence the handling performance of the vehicle. The kinematics and compliance characteristics are determined by the suspension geometry and stiffness of suspension bodies and elastic components. However, it is usually inefficient to model all the joints, bushings, and linkage deformation in a full vehicle model. By transforming the complex modeling problem into a data-driven problem tends to be a good solution. In this research, the neural-network-based suspension kinematics and compliance model is built and implemented into a 17 DOF full vehicle model, which is a hybrid model with state variables expressed in the global coordinate system and vehicle coordinate system. The original kinematics and compliance characteristics are derived from multibody dynamics simulation of the suspension system level.

The left-turn condition is the most complicated one at the unsignalized intersection, which is one of the key factors that affect traffic safety and efficiency. To solve this problem, this study proposes a distributed trajectory optimization framework based on the Gauss pseudospectral method (GPM). First, a circular obstacle based on the road size is constructed to replace the actual path constraint. The movement of obstacle is used for iterative calculations, and the trajectory of the left-turn vehicle is approached to the theoretical path. Then, for the multi-vehicle coordinated condition, the collision free constraints between vehicles is added to the optimization framework several times. In addition, the previous calculation result is used as the initial guess solution for the next calculation until all constraints are set.

The counterbalanced forklift truck in the high-speed emergency steers and other extreme conditions, the single side of forklift is off the ground, which will cause a rollover, and the larger safety accidents are likely to occur and even endanger the safety of drivers. Aiming at the problem of judging the safety domain in the process of forklift driving, this paper proposes a strategy for dividing the forklift’s driving state on the basis of the zero-moment point. The relationship between the zero-moment point’s lateral component and the forklift’s support plane is used as the basis for division. The forklift rollover process is divided into a safe stage, a controllable danger stage, and a critical rollover stage. In the safe stage, the cylinder does not provide support force, and in the controllable danger stage, the cylinder support force is adjusted on the basis of the model predictive control algorithm to adjust the forklift.

This paper intends to present a novel optimal trajectory planning method for obstacle avoidance on highways. Firstly, a mapping from the road Cartesian coordinate system to the road Frenet-based coordinate system is built, and the path lateral offset in the road Frenet-based coordinate system is represented by a function of quintic polynomial respecting the traveled distance along the road centerline. With different terminal conditions regarding its position, heading and curvature of the endpoint, and together with initial conditions of the starting point, the path planner generates a bunch of candidate paths via solving nonlinear equation sets numerically. A path selecting mechanism is further built which considers a normalized weighted sum of the path length, curvature, consistency with the previous path, as well as the road hazard risk.

Optimization design for vehicle front-end structures has proven rather essential and been extensively used to improve the vehicle performance. Nevertheless, the front-end structure needs to meet the requirement of both pedestrian safety and structural stiffness which are somewhat contradicting to each other. Furthermore, an optimal design could become less meaningful or even unacceptable when some uncertainties present. In the paper, a multi-objective discrete robust optimization (MODRO) algorithm is used to minimize the injury of head and maximize the structural stiffness involving uncertainties. MODRO algorithm is achieved by coupling grey relational analysis (GRA) and principal component analysis (PCA) with Taguchi method. The optimized result shows that the MODRO algorithm improved performance of pedestrian head injury and robustness of the vehicle front-end structure.

This paper presents an optimal cooperative path planning method considering driver’s driving intention for shared control to address target path conflicts during the driver-automation interaction by using the convex optimization technique based on the natural cubic spline. The optimal path criteria (e.g. the optimal curvature, the optimal heading angle) are formulated as quadratic forms using the natural cubic spline, and the initial cooperative path profiles of the cooperative path in the Frenet-based coordinate system are induced by considering the driver’s lane-changing intention recognized by the Support Vector Machine (SVM) method. Then, the optimal cooperative path could be obtained by the convex optimization techniques. The noncooperative game theory is adopted to model the driver-automation interaction in this shared control framework, where the Nash equilibrium solution is derived by the model predictive control (MPC) approach.

The lubrication analysis of IC engine piston ring is usually carried out under engine rated working condition. In actual use, the IC engine (especially the vehicle engine) does not always operate in rated working condition, and its working condition will be changed frequently. In this paper, an IC engine is taken as the studying object, based on the measured gas pressure in the engine cylinder, the lubrication characteristics of piston ring under different engine working conditions is analyzed in which the transport of lubricating oil between the piston ring and the cylinder liner is considered. The results indicate that the engine working condition has remarkable influence on the lubrication characteristics of IC engine piston ring. The worst lubrication status of piston ring may not occurred in the engine rated working condition.

The around view monitor (AVM) system for the long-body road vehicle with multiple articulated carriages usually suffers from the incomplete distortion rectification of fisheye cameras and the irregular image stitching area caused by the change of relative position of the cameras on different carriages while the vehicle is in motion. In response to these problems, a set of calibration and stitching methods of AVM are proposed. First, a radial-distortion-based rectification method is adopted and improved. This method establishes two lost functions and solves the model parameters with the two-step optimization method. Then, AVM system calibration is conducted, and the perspective transformation matrix is calculated. After that, a static basic look-up table is generated based on the distortion rectification model and perspective transformation matrix.

Precision spherical joints are widely employed in parallel mechanisms, but its rotation orientation and angle can not be known in its passive motion. Measurement of multi-dimensional angular displacement will be very of great significance in the prediction, feedback and control of motion errors of parallel mechanism. Based on the magnetic effect, a new method to identify the orientation and rotation angle with Hall sensors array matched by permanent magnet is proposed. The basic idea is embedding a permanent magnet(PM) in the ball head and several hall sensors are distributed in the ball socket. When the ball head carrying the permanent magnet rotates together, the Hall sensors array will detect the variation of magnetic induction intensity, and then the angle can be calculated by mathematics model.

In this paper, a new roll-plane hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) system is proposed to enhance the roll and lateral dynamics of a two-axle bus. It is well-known that the suspension tuning is of great importance in the design process and has also been explored in a number of studies, while only minimal efforts have been made for suspension tuning for the newly proposed HIS system especially considering lateral stability. This study aims to explore lateral dynamics and suspension tuning of a two-axle bus with HIS system, which could also provide valuable information for roll dynamics analysis. Based on a ten-DOFs lumped-mass full-car model of a bus either integrating transient mechanical-hydraulic model for HIS or the traditional suspension components, three newly promoted parameters of HIS system are defined and analyzed-namely the total roll stiffness (TRS), roll stiffness distribution ratio (RSDR) and roll-plane damping (RPD).

The vibration and instability experienced in an ambulance can lead to secondary injury to a patient and discourage a paramedic from emergency care. This paper presents a hydraulically interconnected suspension (HIS) system which can achieve enhanced cooperative control of roll, pitch and bounce motion modes to improve the ambulance's ride comfort and handling performance. A lumped-mass model integrated with a mechanical and hydraulic coupled system is developed by using free-body diagram and transfer matrix methods. The mechanical-fluid boundary condition in the double-acting cylinders is modelled as an external force on the mechanical system and a moving boundary on the fluid system. A special modal analysis method is employed to reveal the vibration characteristics of the ambulance with the HIS.

This study aims to explore the influence of a vehicle front-end shape on pedestrian and cyclist injuries. The injuries of head, upper leg and lower leg based on 50th human model are considered as design response. A multi-objective optimization approach is developed to design and optimize the front shape for minimizing injury risks of pedestrian and cyclist in this study. The numerical models of pedestrian-vehicle and cyclist-vehicle impact is constructed and validated first. Then, the optimal Latin hypercube sampling (OLHS) method is adopted for design of experiment (DOE) and the surrogate model is constructed through radial basis function (RBF). The optimal problems involving a number of objectives are solved by the multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm in this study.

The actual engine (especially vehicle engine) does not always operate under rated operating condition and its operating condition changes constantly. However, only the lubrication performance of crankshaft bearing at rated engine operating condition has been generally analyzed in current design and research of engine crankshaft bearing. In this paper, a four-stroke four-cylinder engine is taken as the studying object, the load and lubrication of crankshaft bearing under different operating conditions are analyzed systematically and comprehensively. The load of connecting-rod bearing is calculated by the dynamic calculation method, the loads of all crankshaft main bearings are calculated by the whole crankshaft solid-element finite element method, and the lubrication performance of crankshaft bearings are analyzed by the dynamic method.

A 3D grid model of engine brake is established for an automobile engine. The dynamic compression release braking process is simulated by using this model. In the process of engine braking, the movement of valve and piston causes changes of the internal flow field of the engine. In this paper, the movement of valve and piston were defined by using the dynamic grid technology, so that the numerical simulation is closer to the actual situation via the updating of grid. Based on the relevant parameters of compression release engine brake (including the opening of the exhaust valve, the engine speed and the exhaust back pressure), the pressure and power of the compression release braking system were simulated under the conditions of multiple operating conditions and experimental verification was carried out. The results showed that the braking works of the compression release engine brake are mainly from the compression stroke and the exhaust stroke.

Hydraulic retarder, as an auxiliary braking device, is widely used in commercial vehicles. Nowadays, the hydraulic retarder’s internal oil is mainly cooled by the coolant circuit directly. It not only aggravates the load of engine cooling system, but also makes the abundant heat energy not be recycled properly. In this study, an independent energy supply device with organic Rankine cycles is applied to solve the problems above. In the structure of this energy supply device, the evaporator’s inlet and outlet is connected in parallel with the oil outlet and inlet of the retarder respectively. A part of oil enters the evaporator to transfer heat with the organic fluid, and the rest of oil enters the oil-water heat exchanger to be cooled by the coolant circuit. According to the different braking conditions of the retarder, the oil temperature in the inlet of the hydraulic retarder can be kept within the proper range through adjusting the oil flow rate into the evaporator properly.

This paper introduces a vehicle model in CarSim, and replaces a portion of its standard suspension system with an HIS model built in an external software to implement co-simulations. The maneuver we employ to characterize the HIS vehicle is a constant radius method, i.e. observing the vehicle’s steering wheel angle by fixing its cornering radius and gradually increasing its longitudinal speed. The principles of the influence of HIS systems on cornering mainly focus on two factors: lateral load transfer and roll steer effect. The concept of the front lateral load transfer occupancy ratio (FLTOR) is proposed to evaluate the proportions of lateral load transfer at front and rear axles. The relationship between toe and suspension compression is dismissed firstly to demonstrate the effects of lateral load transfer and then introduced to illustrate the effects of roll motion on cornering.

With the development of advanced ABE fermentation technology, the volumetric percentage of acetone, butanol and ethanol in the bio-solvents can be precisely controlled. To seek for an optimized volumetric ratio for ABE-diesel blends, the previous work in our team has experimentally investigated and analyzed the combustion features of ABE-diesel blends with different volumetric ratio (A: B: E: 6:3:1; 3:6:1; 0:10:0, vol. %) in a constant volume chamber. It was found that an increased amount of acetone would lead to a significant advancement of combustion phasing whereas butanol would compensate the advancing effect. Both spray dynamic and chemistry reaction dynamic are of great importance in explaining the unique combustion characteristic of ABE-diesel blend. In this study, a semi-detailed chemical mechanism is constructed and used to model ABE-diesel spray combustion in a constant volume chamber.

In current design optimization of engine crankshaft bearing, only the crankshaft bearing is considered as the studying object. However, the corresponding relations of major structure dimensions exist between the crankshaft and the crankshaft bearing in engine, and there are the interaction effects between the crankshaft and the crankshaft bearing during the operation of engine. In this paper, the crankshaft-bearing system of a four-cylinder engine is considered as the studying object, the multi-objective design optimization of crankshaft bearing is developed. The crankshaft mass and the total frictional power loss of crankshaft bearings are selected as the objective functions in the design optimization of crankshaft bearing. The Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm is used in the optimization calculation. The optimization results are compared to the ones of original engine design and the single-objective design optimization of crankshaft bearing.