Search Results

Heavy Vehicle Event Data Recorders (HVEDRs) have the ability to capture important data surrounding an event such as a crash or near crash. Efforts by many researchers to analyze the capabilities and performance of these complex systems can be problematic, in part, due to the challenges of obtaining a heavy truck, the necessary space to safely test systems, the inherent unpredictability in testing, and the costs associated with this research. In this paper, a method for simulating vehicle speed sensor (VSS) inputs to HVEDRs to trigger events is introduced and validated. Full-scale instrumented testing is conducted to capture raw VSS signals during steady state and braking conditions. The recorded steady state VSS signals are injected into the HVEDR along with synthesized signals to evaluate the response of the HVEDR. Brake testing VSS signals are similarly captured and injected into the HVEDR to trigger an event record.

Considering the current trend towards the electrification of commercial vehicles, the development of Beam eAxle solutions has become necessary. The utilization of an electric drive unit in heavy-duty solid axle-based commercial vehicles presents unique and demanding challenges. These include the necessity for elevated peak and continuous torque while meeting packaging constraints, structural integrity requirements, and extended service life. One such solution was developed by BorgWarner to address these challenges. This paper offers a comprehensive overview of the design and development process undertaken for this Dual Motor Beam eAxle system. This includes the initial comparison of various eAxle solutions, the specifications of components selected for this design, and the initial results from dyno and vehicle development.

Nowadays, Bismuth (Bi) is being applied as an overlay material for engine bearings instead of Lead (Pb) which is an environmentally harmful material. Bi overlay has already been a solid performer in some automotive engine sectors due to its superior load carrying capacity and good robustness characteristic which are necessary to maintain its longevity during the lifetime of engines. The replacement is also seen on relatively larger size engines, such as Trucks and Off-highway heavy duty applications. Basically, these applications require higher power output than passenger cars, and the expected component lifecycle becomes longer. Though Bi has similar material characteristic to traditional Pb, it becomes challenging for the material alone to satisfy these requirements. Polymer overlay is known for its superior anti-wear performance and longer lifetime due to less adhesion against a steel counterpart than metallic materials (included Bi).

Lithium-ion batteries serve as the main power source for contemporary electric vehicles. Safeguarding these batteries against damage is paramount, as it can trigger accelerated performance deterioration, potential fire hazards, environmental threats, and more. This study explores damage progression of a commercial vehicle lithium-ion battery module containing prismatic cells under indentation crush loading. We employed computational simulations of mechanical loading tests to investigate this behavior. Physical tests involved subjecting modules to low-speed (0.05 m/s) indentations using a V-shaped stainless-steel wedge, under six unique loading conditions. During the tests, force, and voltage change with wedge displacement were monitored. Utilizing experimental insights, we constructed a finite element model, which included key components of the battery module, such as the prismatic cells, steel frames, and various plastic parts.

Bicycle computers record and store global position data that can be useful for forensic investigations. The goal of this study was to estimate the absolute error of the latitude and longitude positions recorded by a common bicycle computer over a wide range of riding conditions. We installed three Garmin Edge 530 computers on the handlebars of a bicycle and acquired 9 hours of static data and 96 hours (2214 km) of dynamic data using three different navigation modes (GPS, GPS+GLONASS, and GPS+Galileo satellite systems) and two geographic locations (Vancouver, BC, Canada and Orange County, CA, USA). We used the principle of error propagation to calculate the absolute error of this device from the relative errors between the three pairs of computers. During the static tests, we found 16 m to 108 m of drift during the first 4 min and 1.4 m to 5.0 m of drift during a subsequent 8 min period. During the dynamic tests, we found a 95th percentile absolute error for this device of ±8.04 m.

This paper investigates the tire-road interaction for tires equipped with two different solid rubber material definitions within a Finite Element Analysis virtual environment, ESI PAMCRASH. A Mixed Service Drive truck tire sized 315/80R22.5 is designed with two different solid rubber material definitions: a legacy hyperelastic solid Mooney-Rivlin material definition and an Ogden hyperelastic solid material definition. The popular Mooney-Rivlin is a material definition for solid rubber simulation that is not built with element elimination and is not easily applicable to thermal applications. The Ogden hyperelastic material definition for rubber simulations allows for element destruction. Therefore, it is of interest and more suited for designing a tire model with wear and thermal capabilities.

Automotive crash data analysis and reconstruction is vital for ensuring automotive safety. The objective of vehicle crash reconstruction is to determine the vehicle's motion before, during, and after the crash, as well as the impact on occupants in terms of injuries. Simulation approaches, such as PC CrashTM, have been developed to understand pre-crash and post-crash vehicle motion, rather than the crash phase behavior. Over the past few decades, crash phase simulations have utilized vehicle finite element models. While multibody simulation tools are suitable for crash simulations, they often require detailed crash test data to accurately capture vehicle behavior, which is not always readily available. This paper proposes a solution to this limitation by incorporating crash test data from databases, such as NHTSA, Global NCAP, consumer rating reports, and videos, along with a multibody-based approach, to conduct crash phase simulations.

In the current scenario, manufacturing of heavier products generates colossal waste, generates more CO2 emission, and negatively affects the environment. Customers not only pay higher product costs but also higher operational costs. This in turn demands the need for more recycling. Advanced high strength materials are a key solution to applications demanding higher strength, stiffness, durability & wear requirement, whereas low density materials like aluminium and magnesium won’t be a sustainable choice. With more and more battery electric & fuel cell vehicles, “light weighting” is a key priority. Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) has a great advantage of superior mechanical properties compared to conventional ductile iron, aluminium alloys and even some steel forgings. Typically, ADI is used for high wear applications, whereas this paper will demonstrate the potential of using ADI for Structural applications.

The design of brake system specification is an iterative process, where repeated calculations need to be performed to achieve the target brake performance and finalize the system parameters. Hence there is a need for a methodology to arrive at a set of optimized brake system parameters which can in turn reduce the brake system definition time. In this paper, the brake system dynamics of a passenger/commercial vehicle is mathematically modelled (divided into two parts i) foundation brake model ii) brake apply system model) and uses genetic algorithm to optimize the system parameters. The objective function maximizes the vehicle deceleration and arrives at the target brake feel which includes brake pedal effort and brake pedal travel. When compared to conventional method of brake design which uses iterative approach, this method has the capability to arrive at the optimized results at a faster rate.

An optically accessible hydrogen-fueled, heavy-duty engine was used to investigate the impact of mixture formation on the early flame kernel propagation and the resulting combustion cyclic variability. Direct injection from a centrally mounted medium-pressure outward-opening hollow-cone injector created a fuel- air mixture with a global equivalence ratio of 0.33. The engine was operated at 1200 RPM with dry air at an intake pressure and temperature of 1.0 bar and 305 K, respectively. The charge was ignited at three different locations using focused-laser ignition to allow for undisturbed flame evolution, and the fuel injection timing and injection pressure were varied to influence the mixture inhomogeneity.

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.

Fuel tank is considered as safety component in the vehicle, and it has to be tested to meet the safety requirements as per AIS 095. Earlier, fuel tanks were manufactured by using Hot dipped cold rolled steel material and the weld zones are applied with Anti-corrosive coating. Few fuel tanks were reported with Corrosion problems. The root cause analysis was carried out considering the raw material, manufacturing process, transpiration, storage and usage. As an improvement, the new fuel tank is designed to eliminate the limitations of the existing fuel tank. 3D modeling was done to check space and mounting requirement in the layout and used for volume calculations. FE analysis was performed to check structural stability. Emphasis given on Interchange-ability to cater the new fuel tanks in place of old as spares requirement. The fuel tank has developed with Alumina steel material.

The thermal and mechanical loads of the engine rise dramatically with the increase in engine power density, which places higher demands on the design of the piston. In this paper, the design development of a steel piston for a marine diesel engine belonging to 190 series heavy-duty diesel engines was studied. The design methods including material selection and structural design were used to finished the preliminary design. In the meanwhile, the design philosophies of the aluminum alloy piston and composite piston for the 190 series diesel engines were used for reference in the design process. The designed steel piston was tested in the engine durability bench test and simulated for reliability. The results showed that the failure of the steel piston occurred at the same position in both the test and the simulation. The cause of cracking in the steel piston was analyzed, and the insufficient strength of the local structure led to high-cycle fatigue failure.

Road anomalies pose significant challenges for on-road safety, ride comfort, and fuel economy. The recent advancement of Connected Vehicle technology has made it feasible to overcome this challenge by sharing the detected road hazards information with other vehicles and entities. However, localization accuracies of the detected road hazards are often very low due to noisy detection results and limited GPS sensor performances. In this paper, a cloud based data management system with in-vehicle and on-cloud data processing modules is presented for road hazards detection and localization. Stereo camera and a consumer-grade GPS sensor on a testing vehicle are used to detect road anomaly information, e.g., type, size, and location, where a novel in-vehicle data processing module is implemented based on Kalman Filter and Phase Adjustment.

The new generation vehicles these days are managed by networked controllers. A large portion of the networks is planned with more security which has recently roused researchers to exhibit various attacks against the system. This paper talks about the liabilities of the Controller Area Network (CAN) inside In-vehicle communication protocol and a few potentials that could take due advantage of it. Moreover, this paper presents a few security measures proposed in the present examination status to defeat the attacks. In any case, the fundamental objective of this paper is to feature a comprehensive methodology known as Intrusion Detection System (IDS), which has been a significant device in getting network data in systems over many years. To the best of our insight, there is no recorded writing on a through outline of IDS execution explicitly in the CAN transport network system.

Testing was conducted in daytime and nighttime conditions at four speeds – 35, 50, 55, and 60 miles per hour (mph) – to evaluate the performance of the audible and visual forward collision warning (FCW) system in a WABCO OnGuardACTIVE collision mitigation system (CMS) while approaching a foam stationary vehicle target (SVT). Testing measured the time to collision (TTC) values utilizing a VBOX data acquisition system as well as an “analog” system utilizing synced cameras and a reference line painted on the test track. WABCO Toolbox was utilized to download OnGuard data from the Freightliner after each test; this data was then compared to the data acquired by the VBOX data acquisition system. The results of the testing provide valuable information to collision investigators on the performance of the WABCO OnGuardACTIVE Collision Mitigation System on stationary vehicles.

Electronic control units of Bendix® ABS/ESC and Collision Mitigation Systems have the capability to record event data in the ABS/ESC control unit. Bendix refers to this event data recording functionality as the Bendix Data Recorder (BDR). This paper presents an overview of the BDR functionality and examines the range and resolution of data elements, the synchronicity or timing of the recorded data, and application of the data for use in analyzing crashes. Various tests were performed using trucks equipped with Bendix® Wingman® Fusion™ and were conducted in a manner to trigger BDR records. BDR data was compared to data collected from the J1939 CAN Bus and from Racelogic VBOX data loggers.

The Daimler Detroit AssuranceⓇ 4.0 collision mitigation system is able to assist a driver in various aspects of safely operating their vehicle. One capability is the Active Brake Assist (ABA), which uses the Video Radar Decision Unit (VRDU) to communicate with the front bumper-mounted radar to provide information about potential hazards to the driver. The VRDU may warn the driver of potential hazards and apply partial or full braking, depending on the data being gathered and analyzed. The VRDU also records event data when an ABA event occurs. This data may be extracted from the VRDU using Detroit DiagnosticLink software. This paper presents an overview of the VRDU functionality and examines aspects of VRDU data such as the range and resolution of data elements, the synchronicity or timing of the recorded data, and application of the data for use in the analysis of crashes.

The transport systems, as large energy consumers and important contributors to greenhouse (GHG), criteria pollutant and noise emissions worldwide, have been permanently challenged by the continuously increased stringent environmental standards to improve its energy efficiency, as well as to reduce its environmental footprint. Transit systems, which operates in urban areas, are particularly subjected to stringent environmental and efficiency regulations, given their proximity to large population concentrations, alongside the urban transport corridors. This is particularly true for bus transit systems, mostly powered by internal combustion engines (ICE), generally fueled with fossil diesel fuel.

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.