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Ride is essentially the outcome of coupled dynamics of various involved sub-systems which make it too complex to deal analytically. Tires, amongst these, are known to be highly nonlinear compliant systems. Selection of tires specifications such as rated tyre pressure, etc. are generally decided through subjective assessment. While experts agree that tyre pressure affects the attributes such as ride to a noticeable degree, the quantification of the change often remains missing. In the current work, vibration levels of various sub-systems relevant to ride in an SUV are measured for three different tyre pressures at different speeds over the three randomly generated roads. For the purpose, artificial road profiles of classes A, B and C are synthesized from the spectrum of road classes defined in ISO 8608:2016 and reproduced on a four-poster test rig.

Drive cycles have been an integral part of emission tests and virtual simulations for decades. A drive cycle is a representation of running behavior of a typical vehicle, involving the drive pattern, road characteristics and traffic characteristics. Drive cycles are typically used to assess vehicle performance parameters, perform system sizing and perform accelerated testing on a test bed or a virtual test environment, hence reducing the expenses on road tests. This study is an attempt to design a relatively robust process to generate a real world drive cycle. It is based on a Six Sigma design approach which utilizes data acquired from real world road trials. It explicitly describes the process of generating a drive cycle which closely represents the real world road drive scenario. The study also focuses on validation of the process by simulation and statistical analysis.

Traffic awareness of the driver is one of the prime focus in terms of pedestrian and road safety. Driver experience plays a significant role and driving requires careful attention to changing environments both within and outside the vehicle. Any lapse in driver attention from the primary task of driving could potentially lead to an accident. It is observed that, lack of attention on the ongoing traffic and ignorant about the traffic information such as traffic lights, road signs, traffic rules and regulations are major cause for the vehicle crash. Traffic signals & signage are the most appropriate choice of traffic control for the intersection, it is important to ensure that driver can see the information far away from the intersection so that he/she can stop safely upon viewing the yellow and red display. Then, upon viewing the signal operations and conditions the motorist can stop his/her vehicle successfully before entering the intersection.

In-vehicle displays such as an instrument cluster in a vehicle provide vital information to the user. The information in terms of displays and tell-tales needs to be perceived by the user with minimal glance during driving. Drivers must recognize the condition of the vehicle and the state of its surroundings through primarily visual means. Drivers then process this in the brain, draw on their memory to identify problem situations, decide on a plan of action and execute it in order to avoid an accident. There are visual hindrances seen in real world scenario such as obscuration, reflection and glare on the instrument cluster which prevents the vital information flow from vehicle to the driver. In order to ensure safety while driving, the instrument cluster or driver displays should be placed in an optimized location. This paper deals with how to achieve a visual hindrance free cluster position in a vehicle to protect the important information flow from the vehicle to the driver.

The customer of today is sensitive towards shift quality. The demand is for a crisp and precise gear shift with low shift effort. The impulses from synchronizers make shifts feel notchy. After synchronization the blocker ring releases the sleeve. The sleeve then hits the teeth of the clutch body ring. The second impulse causes a phenomenon called double bump. This can be felt at the hand and makes a shift feel notchy or sluggish. An ideal way to overcome this is to optimize the detent profile. This paper explains in detail the various factors that contribute to the perceived shift feel. Various methods to optimize the forces on the knob by changing the detent profile are discussed. Gear Shift Quality Assessment (referred as GSQA henceforth) is a tool to acquire the required shift feel data. Using this tool shift efforts and kinematics of a 5 speed manual transmission are plotted for illustration. The calculations required to optimize the detent profile are explained in detail.

Roll-over protective structures (ROPS) are safety devices which provide a safe environment for the tractor operator during an accidental rollover. The ROPS must pass either a dynamic or static testing sequence or both in accordance with SAE J2194. These tests examine the performance of ROPS to withstand a sequence of loadings and to see if the clearance zone around the operator station remains intact in the event of an overturn. In order to shorten the time and reduce the cost of new product development, non-linear finite element (FE) analysis is practiced routinely in ROPS design and development. By correlating the simulation with the results obtained from testing a prototype validates the CAE model and its assumptions. The FE analysis follows SAE procedure J2194 for testing the performance of ROPS. The Abaqus version 6.12 finite element software is used in the analysis, which includes the geometric, contact and material nonlinear options.

Regulations on pedestrian safety have been introduced globally since the year 1990 and in India it will have to be met around the year 2016. Process of making vehicle compliant to this regulation requires rigorous design development and testing. Testing involves propelling head-forms (Child and Adult) on bonnet at 35 km/h and 40 km/h and leg-forms (Upper and Lower) on bumper at 40 km/h according to the different National / International / NCAP regulatory requirements A pedestrian protection test rig has been indigenously designed and developed in-house to perform pedestrian protection impact testing in-house. The paper describes the salient features of the pedestrian protection test rig, its functioning, operation and process of acquiring the data for determination of the values required by crash safety regulations.

Ground clearance plays an important role in Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV). Designers are good in designing their own systems but when it comes to integration of systems, the impact of one system on others and cascading effects become the major problems in full vehicle development. The test vehicle is a monocoque construction with power train in transverse (east-west) direction. Vehicle shudder is observed in lateral direction exciting the steering column, floor during the low gear power train run up in Wide Open Throttle (WOT) condition. The shudder is felt predominantly on the front half of the vehicle. Being a low frequency phenomenon with high energy it becomes critical and the phenomenon is easily perceivable by passenger. The paper discusses the measurement and analysis procedures to identify the root cause of shudder. Different modifications are tried out based on the analysis and an optimum solution is selected.

Validation of vehicle structure is at the core of reduction of product development time. Robust and accelerated validation becomes an important task. In service the vehicle is subjected to variable loads. These act upon the components that originate from road roughness, manoeuvres and powertrain loads. Majority of the body in white and chassis structural failures are caused due to vertical loading. Measured road load data in test track have variable amplitude histories. These histories often contain a large percentage of small amplitude cycles which are non damaging. This paper describes a systematic approach to derive the compressed load cycle from the measured road load data in order to produce representative and meaningful yet economical load cycle for fatigue simulation. In-house flow was developed to derive the compressed load time history.

In current competitive environment automobile industry is under heavy pressure to reduce time to market. First time right design is an important aspect to achieve the time and cost targets. CAE is a tool which helps designer to come up with first time right design. This also calls for high degree of confidence in CAE simulation results which can only be achieved by undertaking correlation exercises. In automobiles most of the structures are subjected to vibration from dynamic loads. All the dynamic road loads are random in nature and can be very easily expressed in terms of power spectral density functions. In the current scenario structural durability of the parts subjected to vibration is done partially through modal performance and partially though frequency response analysis. The only question that arises is what amplitude to use at what frequency and how to map all the accelerated tests dynamic load frequency spectrum to simulation domain.

In the new product design, meeting customer requirements, process alignment, timely execution and successful implementation plays a critical role. Six sigma methodology is a disciplined, standardized methodology supported by analytical tools to meet the quality and functional targets. An engine cradle or sub-frame is the principal load carrying member in a monocoque vehicle construction. It is extensively used to (i) provide structural support and retention of power train, suspension control arms, stabilizer bar, and steering rack mounting features (ii) to isolate the high frequency vibrations of engine and suspension from the remaining structures (iii) to absorb and transmit the impact forces during frontal crash. This paper attempts to explain (i) the various DFSS-DMADV techniques used during the engine cradle design and development (ii) correlation between the cradle stiffness simulation and test measurement values (iii) cradle NVH test results.

Airbags play a vital role in occupant protection during a crash event. Apart from the crash test the airbags have to additionally meet the requirements of the ECE R 12 headform impact test with Driver's Airbag (DAB) located in the steering wheel being deployed and the ECE R21 headform impact test for Passenger Airbag (PAB) in undeployed condition. Improper location of the PAB module below the Instrument Panel, the design of the air bag housing and the Instrument Panel are some of the factors that could lead to non compliance of the components of the uninflated PAB. The paper deals with the investigation conducted for compliance of the PAB to ECE R 21 with the uninflated air bag in meeting the requirements of 80 g at 19.3 km/h by proper location, changes to the design of the PAB cover, air bag housing brackets, etc.

The scope of the project is to achieve SUV structural performance improvement to meet the offset frontal crash safety requirements as per ECE R 94 Regulation by design modifications in different Sub-systems of the vehicle structure suggested with the help of CAE crash simulations. The study can be classified in four main phases mentioned below. The first phase of the development is to conduct a crash test and CAE simulation for the baseline design. The second phase includes correlation activity among baseline test and CAE. The third phase is to achieve improvement by vehicle structure design modifications and new parts in chassis and BIW guided with CAE simulations and design iterations. Finally the forth phase deals with validation of new crashworthy vehicle design by last crash test.