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In recent years, the push for reduced product development timelines has been more than ever with significant changes in the automotive market. High electrification, intelligent vehicle systems and increased number for car manufacturers are a few key drivers to the same. The front loading of development activities is now a key focus area for achieving faster product development. From vehicle dynamics point of view availability of subjective evaluation feedback plays a key role in optimization various system specifications. This paper discusses an approach for front loading through parallel development of the tire and vehicle chassis system, using advanced simulation and driving simulator technology. The proposed methodology uses virtual tire models which in combination with real-time vehicle model enables subjective evaluation of vehicle performance in driver-in-loop simulators.

The BS6 norms (phase 1) were implemented in India from April 1, 2020 and replaced the previous BS4 norms. Phase 2 of the BS6 norms, which came into effect on April 1, 2023. In accordance with the regulation requirement, effective performance of after treatment systems like DPF and SCR demands critical hardware implementation and robust monitoring strategies in the extended operating zone. Effective OBD monitoring of DPF, which is common to all BSVI certified vehicles, such that the defined strategy detects the presence or absence of the component is imperative. A robust monitoring strategy is developed to detect the presence of the DPF in the real world incorporating the worst possible driving conditions including idling, and irrespective of other environmental factors subject to a location or terrain. The differential pressure sensor across the DPF is used to study the actual pressure drop across the DPF.

The automobile industry is going through one of the most challenging times, with increased competition in the market which is enforcing competitive prices of the products along with meeting the stringent emission norms. One such requirement for BS6 phase 2 emission norms is monitoring for partial failure of the component if the tailpipe emissions are higher than the OBD limits. Recently PM (soot) sensor is employed for partial failure monitoring of DPF in diesel passenger cars.. PM sensor detects soot leakage in case of DPF substrate failure. There is a cost factor along with extensive calibration efforts which are needed to ensure sensor works flawlessly. This paper deals with the development of an algorithm with which robust detection of DPF substrate failure is achieved without addition of any sensor in the aftertreatment system.

Range anxiety is one of the major factors to be dealt with for increasing penetration of EVs in current Automotive market. The major reasons for range anxiety for customers are sparse charging infrastructure availability, limited range of Electric vehicles and range uncertainty due to diverse real-world usage conditions. The uncertainty in real world range can be reduced by increasing the correlation between the testing condition during vehicle development and real-world customer usage condition. This paper illustrates a more accurate test methodology development to derive the real-world range in electric vehicles with experimental validation and system level analysis. A test matrix is developed considering several variables influencing vehicle range like different routes, drive modes, Regeneration levels, customer drive behavior, time of drive, locations, ambient conditions etc.

As we all know, automotive headliners are an essential component of any car’s interior as they cover all the internal components and provide a clean and finished look. Headliners not only increase the aesthetic appeal of a car’s interior, but also acts as an insulation and sound absorption source. As per the latest Government norms, Curtain Airbag (henceforth called as CAB) has been made mandatory and this change calls for the corresponding changes in the Headliner packaging of all passenger vehicles. In general, curtain air-bag deployment calls for a twist open of Headliner at lateral sides (a portion below Hinge-line) during the deployment. This enables the inflated airbag to flow inside the passenger cabin to protect the passenger from any injury. Conventionally no components are packaged below the hinge-line area of headliner to avoid obstruction for CAB deployment and any part fly-off concerns.

As customers are inching towards adoption of electric vehicles as an alternative to internal combustion engines, automotive OEM’s will have to embrace this change and equip with new product development process. When it comes to Electric Vehicle (EV) in comparison with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), NVH plays a major differentiator for vehicle refinement. Squeak and rattles will account for 20-25% of overall in-cabin noise source in an electric vehicle, most of which is observed from interior trims. Trims are mounted using small plastic clips which function as attachments and play a significant role in part retention and part integrity during normal operation and in case of any transient events. The engineering specifications for selecting a clip is force in newtons and it is mostly driven by ease of assembly, serviceability, and durability. A single DOF system with a specimen mass is developed and stiffness and damping are calculated based on transmissibility.

This paper examines one of the approaches used to identify the root causes of sound quality issues in vehicles, including the direct impact of psychoacoustics on the human experience. Specifically, the absence of masking effects provided by traditional combustion engines has made noise and vibration from electric drives significant factors in decision-making processes, with high-pitched tonal noise from electric motors causing annoyance and sound quality concerns for electrified propulsion systems. During vehicle testing at different speeds, a whining noise was observed, leading to an NVH test to locate the noise source. The noise is traced to the transmission by the dominating order of input reduction along with the contribution from the casing resonance. A multi-physics-based e-NVH analysis was performed, and the test data were correlated.

Attaining better acoustic performance and back-pressure is a continuous research area in the design and development of passenger vehicle exhaust system. Design parameters such as tail pipe, resonator, internal pipes and baffles, muffler dimensions, number of flow reversals, perforated holes size and number etc. govern the muffler design. However, the analysis on the flow directivity from tail pipe is limited. A case study is demonstrated in this work on the development of automotive muffler with due consideration of back pressure and flow directivity from tail pipe. CFD methodology is engaged to evaluate the back pressure of different muffler configurations. The experimental and numerical results of backpressure have been validated. The numerical results are in close agreement with experimental results.

Electric Vehicle is the need of an hour, as due to excessive usage of IC Engine vehicles has resulted in the depletion of the ozone layer to a significant level and fuel cost is increasing. With new technologies coming into the market, challenges come hand in hand because of Electric Vehicle. In comparison to IC Vehicle, areas of thermal management or the number of components for which thermal management needs to be done is higher and rather complex. As the thermal management system is the second highest energy consuming source after the powertrain of the electric vehicle, an efficient and reliable design is mandatory to ensure better range in an Electric Vehicle. Thermal Management of the Electric Vehicle has been identified as one of the critical parameters for balancing both cabin comfort as well as Battery temperature. One of the major concerns is meeting the Cabin comfort during colder weather with minimum energy consumption.

E-mobility is creating more challenges and great opportunities for automotive textile industries to bring out new textiles for light weight, more aesthetic, better feel, sustainable and biomaterial to meet the customer perception. Textiles allows a more design freedom to in terms of construction, weaving and wrapping solutions. A hard rough plastic surface could be transferred into a more pleasant soft touch surface by a simple wrapping with textiles. The introduction of electric vehicle will convert the car as more silent as it replaces the engine by motor and battery mechanism. The more silent is the car, the more silent is the BSR behavior of the material. This work discloses of a polyester textile developed to meet automotive lightweight to strength requirements with its new nonwoven construction for seat insert and bolster application which demands for high breaking strength, abrasion resistance, stretch and set and soiling resistance.

In an off-road vehicle, Vehicle Structure plays a major role in passenger safety, Aesthetics, Durability, through a validated construction of canopy structure. This structure is to maintain the shape of the vehicle and to support various loads acting on the vehicle. In present market a safe, Durable, Robust, Waterproof, Noise less, Light weight and cost-effective off-road vehicle will always be a delight for any customer. However, the current conventional way of Soft top vehicle structure use metal brackets and formed sheet parts to create a structure to retain the canopy shape in place. These conventional structures are often heavier and would have many demerits such as heavy weight, Corrosion, Risk of canopy tear due to metallic structure edges and inappropriate draining, water management. Considering this we replaced the heavy metal brackets in to blow molded plastic parts.

Ground clearance plays a vital role in an off-road vehicle during off roading. Higher the ground clearance, higher is the difficulty during ingress & egress of the vehicle. This brings in the necessity to provide entry-assist grab-handles for vehicle with more ground clearance (>200mm). Entry-assist grab handles alleviates the pain of the occupants during ingress and egress. For entry-assist grab handles’ purpose to be served, it should provide comfortable ergonomic grip & have to take the load of passengers while ingress or egress through-out the complete life cycle of the vehicle. Entry Assist grab handles can be fitted on A-Pillar zone to assist first row passengers & on B-pillar zone to assist second row passenger. Providing entry-assist grab handles on pillar trims make the grab-handles exposed to head-impact zone and hence, in most of the cases, it should pass the head impact regulations framed for respective countries.

Aerodynamics of on-road vehicles has come to the limelight in the recent years. Better aerodynamic design of vehicle would improve vehicle fuel efficiency with increased acceleration performance. To obtain best aerodynamic body, the series of design modifications and different testing methodologies must be involved in vehicle design and validation phase. Wind tunnel aerodynamic force measurement, road load determination and computational fluid dynamics were the common methods used to evaluate the aerodynamic behavior of the vehicle body. As a novel approach, the present work discusses about the on-road (Real time) testing methodology that is aimed to evaluate the aerodynamic performance of vehicle body using surface pressure mapping. A 64-Channel digital pressure scanner has been utilized in this work for mapping the pressure at different locations of the typical vehicle body.

The SAE J1100 based standard cargo volume index methods and predefined luggage objects are very specific to United States population. The European luggage volume calculation and standard luggage calculations are primarily based on DIN and ISO standards. Luggage volume declaration by manufacturers are based on any of these methods. The calculations are complicated and there is a possibility of declaring different values for similar luggage compartments. The major purchase decision of vehicle is based on its luggage capacity and current methods are very limited to make an intelligent decision by a customer. Market specific customer usage patterns for luggage requirements and protecting them in vehicle architecture upfront in concept stage is important to retain the market position and buying preference of customers. The usage patterns is collected from customer clinics and marketing inputs.

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.

Determination of vehicle specifications (for example, powertrain sizing) is one of the fundamental steps in any new vehicle development process. The vehicle system engineer needs to select an optimum combination of vehicle, engine and transmission characteristics based on the product requirements received from Product Planning (PP) and Marketing teams during concept phase of any vehicle program. This process is generally iterative and requires subject matter expertise. For example, accurate powertrain sizing is essential to meet the required fuel economy (FE), performance and emission targets for different vehicle configurations. This paper analyzes existing vehicle specifications (Passenger Cars/SUVs - Gasoline/Diesel) in different automotive markets (India, Europe, US, Japan) and aims to determine underlying trends across them.

With the exponential advancement in technological features of automobile’s EE architecture, designing of power distribution unit becomes complex and challenging. Due to the increase in the number of features, the overall weight of power distribution unit increases and thereby affecting the overall system cost and fuel economy. The scope of this document is to scale down the weight and space of the power distribution unit without compromising with the current performance. The concept of next generation power distribution unit in automobiles is achieved using miniaturization of its sub-components which involves replacing the mini fuses and JCASE fuses with LP mini and LP JCASE fuses respectively. The transition doesn’t involve any tooling modification and hence saves the tooling cost. Furthermore, to address stringent weight and space targets, LP mini fuses and LP JCASE fuses were further replaced with micro-2 fuse and M-case fuse respectively.

The concept definition phase of typical vehicle development focuses on the architecture definition and optimization based on different constraints/requirements. With the focus on Sustainability, the architecture optimization process must include “Light-weighting” as an optimization criterion. With only concept vehicle architecture available, the vehicle weight estimation becomes judgmental & inaccurate. This paper aims to address this deficiency with a new analytical approach for vehicle weight estimation. The new approach for vehicle weight estimation is a “bottom-up” approach using parametric models for each system weight with the inputs being the relevant vehicle specifications driving the system engineering. For size/shape-driven (rather than functional) systems, the models are content-based & segment-based. The parametric models are then iterated for multiple architecture concepts & specifications and the optimum concept (meeting all functional & business constraints) is chosen.

Poor clutch life is a major issue for some light commercial vehicle models. Clutch overheating is the primary cause for clutch failure. Some of the reasons include inappropriate gear selection by the driver, poor low-end dynamic torque availability from an engine, heavy stop and go traffic, vehicle overloading resulting in excessive clutch slippage especially in gradients, riding of the clutch pedal by the customer etc. These situations lead to a high thermal energy dissipation at the clutch, increasing clutch wear and in extreme conditions leading to not only poor shift quality but also eventual clutch failure. Unfortunately, it is not practical to monitor clutch temperature in a production vehicle due to high costs or technical challenges involved. This paper describes 1-D thermal modeling of single plate dry clutch typically used in passenger car/truck and bus applications. The objective of simulation is to estimate the temperature rise on the clutch facing and clutch housing.