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The Light commercial vehicle (LCV) is primarily used for the last mile delivery and it hold the volume share of around 61% in the commercial vehicle segment. The last mile delivery services have seen a massive surge after the CoVID 19 pandemic resulting is the increase sale of LCV in last few years and is expected to grow further by 8-11% in the coming years. However, city logistic is also responsible for most pollution and noise in the city. Hence, policymakers are aiming to reduce carbon footprint by promoting the use of Electric vehicle by providing incentive to automakers though schemes like FAME I and FAME II. In order to effectively reduce the carbon footprint within city it is important to increase the use of new electric vehicle and convert the old polluting vehicles to electric. Hence, a retro fitment solution for converting used LCV to electric can help in reducing emission as well as noise pollution. Later the same solution can be offered as OE fitment solution.

To meet future emission levels, the automotive industry is trying to reduce tailpipe emissions through both possible pathways, i.e. emission from engines as well as and the development of novel catalytic emission control concepts. The present study will focus on the close coupled SCR on Filter commonly known as SDPF which is a main pathway to reduce NOx along with particulate mass and number for light duty passenger cars and sport utility vehicles for BS 6 RDE/OBD 2 and future legislation like BS-7. The SDPF is a challenging technology as it is critical component in exhaust after treatment system involving in NOx and PM/PN reductions hence careful optimization of this technology is necessary in terms of space velocity requirements, temperature, feed NOx emission levels, particulate mass and ash holding capacities, NH3 storage on the SDPF, and back pressure.

Sound signature design is gaining more importance within global auto manufacturers. ‘Sportiness’ is one of the important point to consider while designing a sound character of a car for passionate drivers and those who love aggressive driving. Nowadays automobile manufacturers are more focused in developing a typical sound signature for their cars as a ‘unique design strategy’ to attract a niche segment of the market and to define their brand image. Exhaust system is one of the major aggregate determining the sound character of ICE vehicles which in turn has the direct influence on the customer perception of the vehicle and the Brand image and also the human comfort both inside and outside the cabin. This research work focuses on novel approaches to identify frequency range and order content by a detailed study of subjective feelings based on psycho-acoustics. Sound samples of various benchmark sporty vehicles have been studied and analyzed based on sound quality parameters.

Computed Tomography (CT) has become a potent instrument for non-invasive assessment of battery cell integrity, providing detailed insights into their internal structure. The present study explores the capabilities and advantages of employing CT for cell characterization through a systematic evaluation from various parameters. The evaluation results will be based on real-world experiments conducted on a standard battery cell, assessing the CT system’s ability to provide precise internal measurements, detect defects, and ensure the overall integrity of the cell. We outline a comprehensive framework that includes criteria such as system specifications, image quality, software capabilities, maintenance, service, and cost-effectiveness.

Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) systems play a critical role in ensuring vehicle safety by detecting potential rear-end collisions and automatically applying brakes to mitigate or prevent accidents. This paper focuses on establishing a framework for the Verification & Validation (V&V) of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) by testing & verifying the functionality of a RADAR-based AEB ECU. A comprehensive V&V approach was adopted, incorporating both virtual and physical testing. For virtual testing, closed-loop Hardware-in-Loop (HIL) simulation technique was employed. The AEB ECU was interfaced with the real-time hardware via CAN. Data for the relevant target such as the target position, velocity etc. was calculated using an ideal RADAR sensor model running on the real-time hardware. The methodology involved conducting a series of test scenarios, including various driving speeds, obstacle types, and braking distances.

Designing a Passenger vehicles suspension system is a key challenge for all OEMs because balancing buzz, squeak, and rattle (BSR) acoustic performance at low-speed driving and improving ride quality at high-speed driving conditions are bet challenging. Suspension noise deteriorates in-cab acoustic quietness and overall vehicle performance. For this reason, optimizing these noises is becoming increasingly prioritized as a key design issue throughout the development process of suspension system. This paper studies the various components of suspension system and their noises in Passenger vehicles. Based on customer voice index and drive pattern, suspension anomalous Clunking noise was identified in Passenger vehicles. This noise phenomenon was cascaded from the vehicle level to BSR rig and eventually to the suspension rig for root cause analysis.

IC (Internal Combustion) engines are evolved and refined over time to greater levels of technology in terms of emission, performance, NVH (Noise, Vibration & Harshness), and design philosophy. Crank-train generates a greater impact on NVH optimization due to its geometry and dynamics. Hence, more attention to mass balancing is required to minimize the negative impact on NVH. The present work demonstrates the evaluation of balancing rate of crank-train system from the first principle of couple balancing. Calculations are conducted at the concept stage to estimate an internal rotating couple balancing of crank-train system due to counterweights and rotating masses. As crankshaft weighs approximately 10-12% weight of an engine and its counter weight plays a vital role in balancing, its optimization will result in a significant impact on NVH.

The stress concentration at welded joints and small crack propagation from some pre-existing discontinuities at notched regions control the fatigue life of typical welded structures. There are numerous FEM stress-based weld fatigue assessment approaches available commercially which unify FEM stresses with various fatigue software codes embedded with international weld standards. However, FEM stress-based approaches predict extensively conservative results. Considerable efforts & subjective decision making is required to arrive at desired level of weld life correlation with physical test results, in terms of weld life and failure location. This is majorly because of inconsistency & inaccuracy in capturing the hot spot stress results due to stress singularities occurring at the notched regions owing to the mesh sensitivity, modeling complexity.

Vehicle transmission gear rattle is one of the most critical NVH irritants for refined vehicles. It is perceived more dominantly in lower gears of vehicle running. It depends on various design parameters like engine input torque amplitude & fluctuations, driveline torsional vibrations, gear micro & macro geometry, shaft flexibility, etc. Establishing exact contribution of each of these parameters to transmission rattle, thru experimental or simulation technique, is very challenging. Current paper explains the NVH CAE benchmark approach deployed to understand difference in rattle behavior of two transmission designs. Paper focuses on simulation of gear impact power and its sensitivity to transmission shaft deflections.

A bus is integral part of public transportation in both rural and urban areas. It is also used for scheduled transport, tourism, and school transport. Buses are the common mode of transport all over the world. The growth in economy, the electrification of public transport, demand in shared transport, etc., is leading to a surge in the demand for buses and accelerating the overall growth of the bus industry. With the increased number of buses, the issue of safety of passengers and the crew assumes special importance. The comfort of driver and passenger in the vehicle involves the vibration performance and therefore, the structural integrity of buses is critically important. Bus safety act depicts the safety and comfort of bus operations, management of safety risks, continuous improvement in bus safety management, public confidence in the safety of bus transport, appropriate stakeholder involvement and the existence of a safety culture among bus service providers.

Underrun Protection devices (UPDs) are specially designed barriers fitted to the front, side, or rear of heavy trucks. In case of accidents, these devices prevent small vehicles such as bikes and passenger cars going underneath and thus minimizing the severity of such accident. Design and strength of UPD is such that it absorbs the impact energy and offers impact resistance to avoid the vehicle under run. Compliance to UPD safety regulations provides stringent requirements in terms of device design, dimensions, and its behavior under impact loading. Since accuracy of Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) predictions have improved, numerical tools like Finite element method (FEM) are extensively used for design, development, optimization, and performance verification with respect to target regulatory performance requirements. For improved accuracy of performance prediction through FEA, correct FE representation of sub-systems is very important.

In the modern and fast growing automotive sector, reliability & durability are two terms of utmost importance along with weight & cost optimization. Therefore it is important to explore new technology which has less weight, low manufacturing cost and better strength. The new technology developed always seek for a quick, cost effective and reliable methodology for its design validation so that any modification can be made by identifying the failures. This paper presents the rig level test methodology to validate and to correlate the CAE derived strain levels, life cycle & failure mode of newly developed light weight stabilizer link for EV Bus suspension

Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is a routinely used technology for the design and testing of road vehicles, including the simulation of their response to an impact. To increase automotive industry competitiveness by reducing physical test-based type approval and to improve road safety, recent initiatives have been taken by both industry and public authorities to promote the use of virtual testing through numerical simulation as an alternative way to check regulatory compliance. [1] To ensure acceptance of this alternative method, the accuracy of the simulation models and procedures needs to be assured and rated independently of the modelling process, software tools, and computing platform. Similarly, it is also imperative to understand the uncertainties emerging out of different component design parameters and analyze their sensitivity towards producing deviations in the reported results as per the requirements of the regulatory standard.

In the past few decades CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) fuel growing as an alternate fuel due to its more economically as compared to Gasoline & Diesel fuels by vehicle running cost in both passenger as well as commercial vehicles, additionally it is more environment friendly & safer fuel with respect to gasoline & diesel. At standard temperature & pressure fuel density of Natural Gas (0.7-0.9 kg/m3) is lower than Gasoline (715-780 kg/m3), Diesel (849~959 kg/m3), therefore CNG fuel require higher storage space as compared to Gasoline & Diesel & also it stores at very high pressure (200-250 bar) to further increase the fuel density 180 kg/m3 (at 200 bar) and for 215 kg/m3 (at 250 bar) in CNG cylinders so that max fuel contains in the cylinders and increase the vehicle running range per fuel filling & reduces its fuel filling frequency at filling stations.

The art of rubber formulation science always has a scope for fine-tuning with changing the parameters like base polymer grade selection, filler selection, curing system/cross link density, manufacturing methods, and many. Hence forth the filler manufacturer arrived differentiation of the filler already, this paper provides a description of rubber formulation tuning for damped vibration automotive applications. Acicular spiky spherical and hollow spherical nano silica selected as filler. With the thorough knowledge of elastomeric formulation and with doping different new selected silica grades, an optimized DOE was done. New formulation development was focused on isolation characteristics without affecting other necessary properties. The different inputs for finite element calculations was studied with the effects of doping different fillers and also studied the resultant virtual output in damping coefficients.

With the recent development in virtual modelling and vehicle simulation technology, many OEM’s worldwide are using digital road profiles in virtual environment for vehicle durability load prediction and virtual design evaluation. For precise simulation results, it is important to have the tire digital twin which is the realistic representation of tire in the virtual environment. The study comprises of discussion about different types of tire models such as empirical, solid model, rigid ring model and flexural ring models such as Pacejka, MF Swift, CD tire, F tire etc. and also the complexity involved in development of these tire models. Generation of virtual tire model requires highly sophisticated test rigs as well as vehicle level testing with Wheel Force transducers and other vehicle dynamics sensors. The large number of data points generated with testing are converted in standard TYDEX format to be further processed in various software tool for virtual model generation.

ISOFIX anchorage plays a critical role in restraining child occupants during crashes. Effective design of ISOFIX anchorages is essential for achieving controlled child occupant kinematics. CAE simulations are extensively used for the development of ISOFIX anchorages. Comprehensive material characterization of ISOFIX wires play a vital role for achieving desired prediction accuracy. This paper covers the detailed process of ISOFIX material characterization for material failure prediction. ISOFIX wires are case hardened to exhibit required strength characteristics. Due to its material characteristics, the conventional material models don't give desired prediction accuracy for failure prediction. Therefore, advanced material models are developed in LS Dyna environment, which can accurately predict plastic and fracture behavior of ISOFIX wires.

The dynamic response of structures to operating or occasional loads is crucial for design considerations, as it directly impacts the cumulative fatigue life. In practice, accurately discerning the precise loads and structural conditions, which involve considerations such as boundary conditions, geometry, and mechanical properties, can be quite challenging. Significant efforts are invested in identifying these factors and developing suitable prediction models. Nonetheless, the estimated forces and boundary conditions remain approximations, leading to uncertainties which affects the overall predictions and the analysis of how stress and strain develop in the structure during subsequent evaluations. Many researchers frequently employ a method where they estimate the forces acting on the system based on measurement data obtained at limited number of locations over the structure.

The automotive world is rapidly moving towards achieving shorter lead time using high-end technological solutions by keeping up with day-to-day advancements in virtual testing domain. With increasing fidelity requirements in test cases and shorter project lead time, the virtual testing is an inevitable solution. This paper illustrates method adopted to achieve best approximation to emulate driver behavior with 1-D (one dimensional) simulation based modeling approach. On one hand, the physical testing needs huge data collection of various parameters using sensors mounted on the vehicle. The vehicle running on road provides the real time data to derive durability test specifications. One such example includes developing duty cycle for powertrain durability testing using Road Torque Data Collection (RTDC) technique. This involves intense physical efforts, higher set-up cost, frequent iterations, vulnerability to manual errors and causing longer test lead-time.

In comparison to traditional gasoline-powered vehicles, Electric vehicles (EVs) development and adoption is driven by several factors such as zero emissions, higher performance, cost effective in maintenance, smoother and quieter ride. Global OEMs are competing to provide a reduced in-cab noise for ensuring a smooth and quiet driving experience. Short project timelines for EV demands quick design and development. In initial stages of project, input data availability of EV is limited and a simplified approach is necessary to accelerate the development of vehicle. This paper focuses on simulation methodology for predicting structure borne noise from powertrain deploying Transfer Path Analysis approach. Current simulation methodology involves full vehicle model with multiple flexible bodies and full BIW flexible model which leads to complex modelling and longer simulation times.