Search Results

The new idea discussed in this paper pertains to the carrier mechanism for spare wheels in heavy commercial vehicles. Typically, these vehicles are equipped with a spare wheel carrier featuring a rope mechanism for loading and unloading the spare wheel. The conventional placement of this system is on the side of the frame/chassis or within the limits of the side member. However, the tire-changing process in this system is often arduous, time-consuming, and requires significant effort. The proposed invention addresses these challenges by repositioning the spare wheel to a vertical orientation, facilitating easier access to its bolts and simplifying the removal process from the mountings. Furthermore, the innovation incorporates a three-way actuation system (Air Actuated, Electric motor-driven, or Hydraulic cylinder actuated mechanisms), thereby reducing the need for manual effort and enhancing driver comfort.

The hybrid structure of Engine Mounts made of rubber casing with cast iron reinforcing. Use of two materials made it unique both in application and testing. The rubber provides damping for engine vibrations and the cast iron provides necessary strengthening to hold the heavy engine in place. In this research paper the FEA (Finite Element Method) methodology is being discussed to evaluate and optimize the design analysis to enhance overall engine mount capacity. The existing and modified designs are validated and considerable improvement is being observed in modified design in physical testing. Accurate modeling of engine mounts assembly is presented in this paper. FEA analysis results have good correlation with physical validation for both designs. Impact of design parameters of rubber mounts has been presented.

Highway transportation using truck is an important transport mode of goods and product to their destination. Commercial vehicle is expensive mode of transportation so it will be protected from failure. For Heavy duty truck they are fully loaded at one side of transportation and other side empty transportation. In such case lift axle grounded when truck is loaded and when truck is empty it is in lift condition. Lift axle is play important role while loading so it is important that it should not fail. Many times lift axle fails at weld location due several load come on the axle. In this paper study of weld failure to vertical, braking and lateral load come on lift axle when truck is in loading condition. Weld failure check in CAE analysis with various load cases and compare with actual physical vehicle failure. Weld failure correlation well correlate when actual loading are consider in analysis. For analysis loading data is measure from RLDA data that will be used for analysis.

Downsizing and Light weighting is the latest trend in the automotive industry to achieve more fuel efficient, compact and cost effective design of vehicles. Powertrain components compromise of more than 45% of the total vehicle weight. Automakers are putting significant efforts to reduce the weight of power train components. Integrated design of aluminum Engine Head and Intake manifold has been successfully implemented. Now currently we have identified the gear box housings for downsizing in light duty trucks i.e. Existing light duty trucks Cast Iron transmission. This design has been successfully modified with integrated clutch housing and transmission housing, using lightweight aluminum as the new material, using simulation tools. This lead to weight savings of up to 30% and cost savings of 20-25% as compared to existing cast iron designs. Using an integrated design reduces the assembly cost, makes the design more compact and gives better weight balance.

Virtual validation of automobile components poses a huge challenge and needs continuous process improvements. One of such challenge in FE modelling of welds and understanding its behavior with respect to physical behavior. With the ongoing development of BSVI line of products in commercial vehicle industry, the virtual validation needs to be accurate and close to the physical behavior of the components. The learning and challenges faced during the previous development is implemented in the current study for weld simulation and correlation activity. The brackets welded to the power train components is taken as a challenge in the present work. Initially weld model was depicted in the CAD and was analyzed in CAE by providing proper FE connection. This practice had lot of flaws, approximations due to perpendicularity and flatness concerns in the models leading to consuming a lot of time in model preparation.

Overall cycle time and prototype testing are significantly decreased by assessment of cooling module performance in the design stage itself. Hence, Front End Cooling and Thermal Management are essential components of the vehicle design process. Performance of the cooling module depends upon a variety of factors like frontal opening, air flow, under-hood sub-systems, module positioning, front grill design, fan operation. Effects of design modifications on the engine cooling performance are quantified by utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool FluentTM. Vehicle frontal configuration is captured in the FE model considering cabin, cargo and underbody components. Heat Exchanger module is modelled as a porous medium to simulate the fluid flow. Performance data for the Heat Exchanger module is generated using the 1D KuliTM software. In this paper, CFD simulation of Front End Cooling is performed for maximum torque and maximum power operating conditions.

Euro 6 emission norms are getting implemented in India from April 2020 and it is being viewed as one of the greatest challenges ever faced by the Indian automotive industry. In order to achieve such stringent emission norms a good strategy will be to optimize the engine out emission through in cylinder emission control techniques and a right sized after treatment system has to be used for this optimized engine. There exist several factors and trade-off between these should be established for in cylinder optimization of emissions. Since the turbocharger plays an apex role in controlling both the performance and engine out emissions of a CI engine, turbocharger selection is a crucial step in the development of new generation of Euro 6 engines in India. Such engines are equipped with additional actuators such as Intake Throttle Valve and Exhaust Throttle Valve and combination of these flap operations with turbocharger output plays a prominent role in controlling performance and emission.

A propeller shaft is a mechanical component of drive train that connects transmission to drive wheels/axle with the goal to transfer rotation and torque. It is used when the direct connection between transmission and drive axle is not possible due to large distance between their respective assigned design spaces. In commercial vehicles especially in heavy duty (GVW/GCW>15 tons) a single piece propeller shaft is seldom used due to its inherent disadvantages and therefore, most if not all, of the setups consists of multiple pieces of propeller shaft which are directly mounted on to frame cross members with the help of mounting brackets. As such the mounting bracket assembly undergoes various dynamic and static loading conditions and should be able to withstand these loads. This paper will focus on the FEA analysis of propeller shaft mounting assembly system. Furthermore, these results will be correlated with physical tests results collected from test rig and physical vehicle testing.

Engine down speeding is rapidly picking up momentum in many segment of world market. Numerous engine down speeding packages from OEM have been tailored to take advantage of the increased efficiencies associated with engine down speeding. Running engine at lower rpm has numerous advantages. The most obvious of these is reduced fuel consumption, since the engine can spend more time running within its optimum efficiency range. By down speeding, the engine is made to run at low speeds and with high torques. For the same power, the engine is operated at higher specific load- Brake Mean Effective pressure (BMEP) which results in higher efficiency and reduced fuel consumption-Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC). The reasons for increased fuel efficiency are reduced engine friction due to low piston speeds, reduced relative heat transfer and increased thermodynamic efficiency.

In an automobile, main function of the steering system is to allow the driver to guide the vehicle on a desired course. Steering system consists of various components & linkages. Using these linkages, the torque from steering wheel is transferred to tyre which results in turning of the vehicle. Over the life of vehicle, these steering components are subjected to various loading conditions. As steering components are safety critical parts in the vehicle, therefore they should not fail while running because it will cause vehicle breakdown. In commercial vehicle segment, vehicle breakdown means delay in freight delivery which results in huge loss to costumer. Therefore, while designing steering components one should consider all the possible loadings condition those are possible. But, it can’t be done through theoretical calculation. Therefore, physical tests have to be carried out to validate design of steering system, which is very costly & time-consuming process.

At the time of invention of road coaches, the vehicle consisted only of an axle with wheels and a body attached. Smooth roads were built for a better ride comfort however they were not consistent. The road coaches were too bumpy and uncomfortable for the passenger along with the driver who was not able to control the vehicle. That's why the engineers had to shift their attention to the suspension system for a better ride comfort and handling. The technology has advanced with time so as the suspension system. Rubber ended type leaf spring is one of the suspension system types available in the industry. The main function of a suspension in order of importance is as below: 1 Acts as a cushioning device ensuring the comfort of the driver and passengers; 2 Maximizes the contact between the tires and the road surface to provide steering stability with good handling; 3 Protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear.

To compete with the current market trends there is always a need to arrive at a cost effective and light weight designs. For commercial vehicles, an attempt is made to decrease weight of the current design without compromising its strength & stiffness, considering/bearing all the worst road/engine load cases and severe environmental conditions. The topic was chosen because of interest in higher payloads, lower weight, and higher efficiency. Automotive cylinder head must be lighter in weight, to meet increasingly demanding customer requirements. The design approach for cylinder head has made it difficult to achieve this target. A designer might make some judgment as to where ribs are required to provide stiffness, but this is based on engineering experience and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the stand-alone head.

The existing head cover is having external oil and blow by separation unit, which is not only costlier but also complex and leads to increase in overall height of engine which was difficult to integrate in new variants of vehicles. A new head cover has been designed with internal baffle type oil and blow by separation system to ensure efficient separation and proper packaging of the system in new variants. The new system has been finalized after 26 DOE’s of different wire mesh sizes and different baffle plate size and positions. The final system has two bowl shaped separation unit with wire mesh, two cup type oil separation passages and one baffle plate for separating blow by. The system works on condensation and gravity method. The blow by is guided through a well-defined passage integrated in aluminum cylinder head cover itself. The passage angle is maintained to ensure minimum oil flow with blow by.

The safety of the heavy duty commercial vehicle (HCV) occupants in an accident is an imperative task and should be considered during the design and development of cabins. The sufficient cabin survival space must be remained after the accident. The main aim of this study is to develop a Finite Element (FE) model of HCV cabin and validate to the test as per AIS029. The present study also includes the assessment of the energy absorption capabilities of the HCV cab during the pendulum impact test. Initially a detailed 3D FE model of a fully suspended HCV cabin was developed and then pendulum impact test simulation was carried out using LS-Dyna explicit solver. Simulation results were compared with the test results and were found in a great agreement in terms of survival space and overall deformation behavior. The load transfer path was described at the time of pendulum impact. The largest amount of impact energy was absorbed by the frontal region of the cabin.