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The automotive industry is facing a challenge as efficiency improvements are required to address the strict emission norms which in turn requires high performance downsized, lightweight IC engines. The increasing demand for lightweight engine needs high strength to weight ratio materials. To meet high strength to weight ratio, castings are preferable. However due to strength limitations for critical crankshaft applications, it forces to use costly forgings such as micro alloyed forging steel and Martensitic (after heat treatment) forging steel. To reduce the cost impact, high strength Austempered Ductile iron (ADI) casting is developed for crankshaft applications to substitute steel forgings. Austempered Ductile Iron is having an excellent mechanical properties due to aus-ferritic structure. The improved properties of developed ADI Crankshaft over steel forged crankshaft offers additional weight advantage.

Leaf springs are used for vehicle suspension to support the load. These springs are made of flat sections of spring steel in single or in stack of multiple layers, held together in bracketed assembly. The key characteristics of leaf spring are defined as ability to distribute stresses along its length and transmit a load over the width of the chassis structures. The most common leaf spring steels are carbon steels alloyed with Cr and micro-alloyed with Ti, V and Nb. The specific thermomechanical process and alloying elements result in specific strength and fatigue properties for spring steels. The unique properties which facilitate use of spring steel in leaf spring suspensions are ability to withstand considerable twisting or bending forces without any distortion. The microstructure of these steel determines the performance and reflects the process of steel manufacturing. The performance is mainly determined by evaluating fatigue life durability.

The usage of forging a preformed, near net shape, compacted and sintered metal powder has been widely accepted since the eighties and is now one of the mainstays for producing Connecting rods in North America. However, its use in Indian subcontinent is limited as its counterpart i.e. conventional steel forging is still the most dominant. Powder metallurgy route has many advantages like good dimensional accuracy; minimum scattering of weight etc. Despite these advantages, the Powder metallurgy process is still not preferred predominantly due to technical (endurance) and infrastructural limitations. This work envisages combining the benefits of powder metallurgy process with the required mechanical properties viz. tensile and fatigue strength alongside design modifications to meet the requirements of a connecting rod for a 2-cylinder diesel engine. The connecting rods met the fatigue life at the required FOS equaling the performance of a conventionally forged connecting rod.

Lift axles of heavy commercial vehicles are deployed to handle increased payload. These axles of Commercial vehicles are made of low alloy carbon steel materials. Lift axles are designed in hollow condition for weight reduction opportunity. Two types of tube materials are used for the manufacturing of lift axles. These are either Cold Drawn Seamless (CDS) tubes or Hot Finished Seamless (HFS) tube material. The vanadium micro-alloyed steel grade, 20MnV6 is an excellent choice for the manufacturing of lift axles. The 20MnV6 has favorable mechanical properties for lift axles and also offers good weldability. However, lift axles made of 20MnV6 when manufactured in hot-finished condition, shows significant scatter in terms of durability performance. This requires further heat treatment of 20MnV6 to be deployed for reducing the scatter in the material properties to reduce scatter in durability performance and thus increasing the reliability of the lift axles.

Currently, automotive industries are using Advanced High-Strength Steels (AHSS) sheet grades to achieve key requirements like light weighting and improved crash performance. But forming of AHSS grades becomes key challenge due to its lesser ductility and edge fracturing tendency during forming. In general, most of the automotive components undergoes shearing operations like blanking and punching which affects the edge ductility of the steel. AHSS grades possess limited edge ductility compared with conventional steel grades which results in edge fracturing due to tensile strain during stretch flanging operation. Stretch flange-ability is an important formability characteristic, which aids in material selection to avoid edge fracturing of complex shaped parts. Material with better stretch flange-ability possess better edge ductility and hence perform better in stretch flanging of sheet metal.

In current scenario, there is trend to use stainless steels in place of carbon steels and aluminized carbon steels for Exhaust application. In response to changing regulatory requirements and durability performance requirements of exhaust systems, the ferritic stainless steels are proven to be best suited for the purpose. There are multiple ferritic stainless steels available as options for exhaust system. The material in an exhaust system is subject to heat, oxidation, corrosion and condensate. These environment condition demands that exhaust material should possess high temperature corrosion and oxidation resistance along with required mechanical performance such as vibration and thermo-mechanical load cycles. This work is an attempt to develop simulated test methods for corrosion and thermal environment and evaluate performance of commonly used ferritic stainless steels.

In a current competitive automotive market, weight and cost optimization is the need of an hour. Therefore it is important to explore use of alternative material which has less weight, low manufacturing cost and better strength. This paper presents methodology to achieve cost & weight reduction through use of Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) instead of alloy forging. ADI casting has lower density, physical properties at par with alloy forgings and lower manufacturing cost. Pivot arm is the one of the critical component of twin axle steering system which transfers the hydraulic torque from steering gearbox to second forward axle via linkage system. In order to design lightweight pivot arm, existing chromium alloy steel material is replaced with the Austempered ductile iron (ADI). Pivot arm is designed and validated digitally as well as bench test and results are found to be meeting cost and weight targets.

The commercial vehicle market in India is shifting to higher payload capacity vehicles due to a lower transportation cost per unit goods. To cater this requirement, the vehicle manufacturers are designing the heavy multi-axle commercial vehicles and with higher per axle loading capacity. One of such a vehicle design involves five-axle vehicle with non-steerable, twin tire, lift axle. Though using a twin tires have increased loading capacity of lift axle compared to a single tire self-steerable lift axle, it can cause tire scrub while vehicle is turning and leads to a significant tire wear. The tire wear possibility due to use of non-steerable lift axle is estimated through simulation using full vehicle model in ADAMS. The operating zone of the vehicle, where maximum tire wear can occur, is identified through simulation. Different alternatives to reduce tire wear for this scenario are also discussed.

In recent years, car manufacturers have been working intensively on new ways to improve the quality of interior trims. Elimination of squeak and rattle has become one of the main concerns for car manufacturers lately, given the significance of these incidences in customers' perception of overall quality. Traditionally, rattle problems are found and fixed with physical tests at the late design stage, mainly due to lack of up-front CAE simulation prediction methodology and tools availability. This article presents a finite element based methodology for the improvement of rattle performance of a vehicle tailgate. In this study, appropriate finite element (FE) modeling technique was introduced to accurately predict occurrence of tailgate rattle. Simulation process using commercial software “Nastran” employing modal and forced frequency response analyses was illustrated. Design modifications were incorporated for performance improvement of rattling on present and future SUVs.

Rubber hose and metallic pipe with crimped joints are extensively used in steering system assembly, transmission oil cooler system, brake system etc. to carry hydraulic fluid or lubricants from one place to another. The pipe and rubber hose assembly provides necessary flexibility for complex routing on the vehicle level. Design of hose and pipe assembly for this application are different due to difference in operating pressure and temperature requirement for vehicle application. This paper defines the criteria for design and validation of hose & pipe assembly used to connect automatic transmission with the cooler. Crimped joints are validated for their separation force, leakages, ability to withstand pressure pulsations, burst test etc. Parameters which influence the hose & pipe assembly durability are pipe end flaring dimensions, type of crimping, reinforcement type, its size, material and pattern, rubber material properties, crimping force, effective crimping diameter etc.

Gearshift quality is a perceived quality parameter. Hence, is getting much importance because of the increased awareness about comfortable and refined driving experience, especially in the case of passenger cars. When the topic of gearshift feeling is broached in manual transmission vehicles, synchronizer pack (shifter sleeve, engaging gear, strut, synchronizer and gear synchro ring assembly) have been the focus point for optimization. Synchronizer type (single, double or triple cone), lining material, datch chamfer angle of shifter sleeve/synchro ring of gear/synchronizer, all of these have been extensively studied in the past to improve the gearshift quality. With stringent timelines for vehicle development, OEMs prefer to use off-the-shelf powertrain systems developed by powertrain manufacturers. Due to this, avenues to refine gearshift feel gets reduced to a large extent and hence refinement becomes difficult.

Breather assembly is mounted on transmission to maintain the pressure equilibrium inside transmission. Breather allows the transmission to breathe air when the air inside transmission expands or contracts due to heating and cooling of lubricating oil during vehicle running. Breather allows the hot air to escape and cool air to enter into the transmission to prevent overheating issue. Failure of breather assembly can lead to pressure buildup inside transmission and further leading to leakage from transmission oil seals. Oil leakage through the breather assembly is governed by parameters such as opening pressure, location and orientation of breather etc. The transmission undergoes different operating conditions of input speed, load, temperature, inclination etc. Also, breather assembly is designed and positioned in such a way that there is no leakage through breather due to oil splash inside the transmission.

Electrical and Series Hybrid Vehicles are generally provided with single speed reduction gearbox. To improve performance and drive range, a two-speed gearbox with coordinated control of traction motor and gearshift actuator is proposed. For a two-speed gearbox, gearshift without clutch would increase the shifting effort. Active Synchronization is introduced for a smoother gearshift even without clutch. The quality of gearshift is considered as a function of applied shift force and time taken. To enhance the quality of the gearshift further, the location of the synchronizer in the transmission system is optimized. To validate the improvement in the quality of the gearshift, a mathematical model of the two-speed gearbox incorporating proposed location of synchronizer assembly along with active synchronization is developed. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results achieved is presented.

Crank train torsional vibration is an important aspect for design and development of Powertrain for NVH refinement and durability. Crank train torsional vibration parameters like angular acceleration of flywheel or twist, depends upon various design parameters like geometry of crankshaft, mass of flywheel, stiffness of clutch, mass of pulley etc. It also depends upon engine operating conditions like engine speed, engine load, combustion peak pressure and combustion pressure variation etc. Most of these parameters are decided by engine power, torque, engine architecture and packaging constraints. Addition of torsional vibration damper (TVD), which works on the principle of tuned dynamic absorber, is commonly deployed design solution to control the torsional vibrations as well as stresses (to improve durability of crank train) induced in crank train assembly at specified modal frequency.

The entire commercial vehicle industry is moving towards weight reduction to leverage on the latest materials available to benefit in payload & fuel efficiency. General practice of weight reduction using high strength steel with reduced thickness in reference to Roark’s formula does not consider the stiffness & dent performance. While this helps to meet the targeted weight reduction keeping the stress levels within the acceptable limit, but with a penalty on stiffness & dent performance. The parameters of stiffener like thickness, section & pitching are very important while considering the Stiffness, bucking & dent performance of a dumper body. The Finite Element Model of subject dumper body has been studied in general particularly on impact of dent performance and is correlated with road load data to provide unique solution to the product. The impact of payload during loading of dumper is the major load case.

Brake system is the most important system in the vehicle considering the overall vehicle safety and speed control. Brake applications are repetitive during a city traffic and hilly terrain on downhill gradient. Frequent braking gives rise to an overheating of the brake drum and its components. Braking operations at high temperature gives rise to problems like reduced deceleration due to loss of brake pad friction characteristics, pad softening and sticking to drum, pad distortion and wear etc. All these factors collectively result in deterioration of the braking performance and reduction of brake pad durability with time. Till date most of the thermal analysis performed for brake drum heating are through physical testing using brake system prototypes and by means of CFD tools. These methods are time consuming and expensive. There is a need for an alternative method to reduce physical trials and prototype building and reduce dependency on CFD analysis.

The present work focuses on optimization of gear shift pattern of an AMT vehicle to improve its NVH performance without causing any adverse effect on any other vehicle performance attribute. The vehicle which was identified with the structural body resonance at low frequency had discomforting boom noise in a particular engine rpm zone and at corresponding vehicle speed. With the initial shift pattern (will be referred as V1 gear shift schedule), the gear shifts were calibrated such that when vehicle is driven in the city with 20 to 60 kmph speed, the vehicle operated mostly in the best fuel economy zone but it used to pass through structural resonance frequency. This resulted in the presence of continuous boom leading to an unpleasant driving experience. In order to avoid the presence of boom noise during city driving, the gear shift points were optimized (will be referred as V2 gear shift schedule) such that the vehicle did not operate in affected engine speed range.

The automotive sector is going through a phase of stiff competition among various Original Equipment Manufacturers for increasing their profitability while ensuring highest levels of customer satisfaction. The biggest challenge for such companies lies in minimizing their overall cost involving investments in Research and Development, manufacturing, after sales service and warranty costs. Higher warranty costs not only affect the net profit but in turn it also affects the brand image of the company to a large extent in the long run. An effort is made here to target such warranty costs due to frequent tail pinion and hub seal leakages on single reduction/hub reduction axles of Heavy Commercial Vehicles in the field. A preliminary study involving the severity analysis of such failures is followed by a step by step investigation of these failures.

EU directive 2005/64/EC on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to their Reusability, Recyclability and Recoverability ( RRR ) requires vehicle manufacturers to put in place the necessary arrangements and procedures for Parts, Materials and Weight (PMW ) data collection from full chain of supply. This is required to perform the calculations of recyclability rate and recoverability rate in line with ISO 22628. Commonly practiced data collection methodologies included spreadsheet and use of internationally available IT support system for collection of material data. Data complexity and prohibitive cost for using Internationally available IT Support systems like IMDS (International Material Data System) has led to the in-house development of IT enabled Solution customizing Siemens PLM software product (Team centre Enterprise) and SAP (SRM suite).

IC Engine manufacturers are constantly in pursuit of better sealability of cylinder head and engine block interface for meeting performance and durability targets. In order to overcome variation in torque - tension characteristics of cylinder head bolt because of friction variations, yield based clamping are being extensively adopted. Current study is done on torque - tension characteristics of a cylinder head bolt with a controlled quality. The paper enumerates the experimental setup representing a sub 1 liter all aluminum engine's head-block joinery. Studies on torque - tension characteristics of cylinder head bolt and the effect of sealing interface using a cost effective single layer steel gasket are being discussed in the paper. Subject work has led to a successful implementation of angular torque parameters on head bolts to meet functional and durability targets.