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Recently, regulations on automobile emission have been significantly strengthened to address climate change. The automobile industry is responding to these regulations by developing electric vehicles that use batteries and fuel-cells. Automobile emissions are environmentally harmful, especially in the case of vehicles equipped with high-temperature and high-pressure diesel engines using compression-ignition, the proportion of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions reaches as high as 85%. Additionally, air pollution caused by particulate matter (PM) is six to ten times higher compared to gasoline engines. Therefore, the electrification of commercial vehicles using diesel engines could potentially yield even greater environmental benefits. For commercial vehicles battery electric vehicles (BEVs) require a large number of batteries to secure a long driving range, which reduces their maximum payload capacity.

Platoon is a system that connects vehicles through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology to maintain a short distance between vehicles while driving on the road. To improve fuel efficiency, many automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are interested in developing and demonstrating real-world platoon system. However, it is hard for heavy duty trucks to develop this system due to the difficulty of maintaining the targeted intervehicle distance not only for fuel efficiency but also for safety in case of emergency braking. Because of this critical safety issue in the emergency situation, the platoon system for heavy duty trucks can be hardly demonstrated or tested in real vehicle environment. The relatively complex system and the slow response characteristic of commercial vehicles makes this even more difficult.

In this study, the preliminary validation method of the steering system is constructed and the objective is to satisfy the target performance in the conceptual design stage for minimizing the problems after the detailed design. The first consideration about steering system is how to extract the reliable steering effort for parking. The tire model commonly used in MBD(Multi-Body Dynamics) has limited ability to represent deformations under heavy loads. Therefore, it is necessary to study adequate tire model to simulate the behavior due to the large deformation and friction between the ground and the tire. The two approaches related with F tire model and mathematical model are used. The second is how to extract each link’s load in the conceptual design stage. Until now, each link’s load could be derived only by actual vehicle test, and a durability analysis was performed using only pre-settled RIG test conditions.

Recently, the design of automotive headlamps has become diversified and complicated according to customer needs. Hence, structural complexity of the headlamps has also increased. Complex structure of the headlamps inevitably causes a disturbance in air circulation. For this reason, inadvertent micro-sized water droplets, called fogging, are condensed on the inner surface of headlamp lens due to temperature difference between the inner and outer lens surfaces. To circumvent fogging inside of the headlamp lens, an anti-fogging coating is indispensable. Conventionally, diverse surfactants have been adopted as substantial material for the anti-fogging coating. However, the usage of the surfactants causes undesirable side effect such as water mark arising from vapor condensation, which is an important issue that must be fully resolved. In this study, we developed an innovative anti-fogging coating material without using conventional surfactant.

This paper summarizes the validation of prototype vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) safety applications based on Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) in the United States under a cooperative agreement between the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partners LLC (CAMP) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). After consideration of a number of V2I safety applications, Red Light Violation Warning (RLVW), Curve Speed Warning (CSW) and Reduced Speed Zone Warning with Lane Closure Warning (RSZW/LC) were developed, validated and demonstrated using seven different vehicles (six passenger vehicles and one Class 8 truck) leveraging DSRC-based messages from a Road Side Unit (RSU). The developed V2I safety applications were validated for more than 20 distinct scenarios and over 100 test runs using both light- and heavy-duty vehicles over a period of seven months. Subsequently, additional on-road testing of CSW on public roads and RSZW/LC in live work zones were conducted in Southeast Michigan.

Hyundai's new engine is developed which optimize the cooling efficiency for knocking improvement and friction reduction. The cooling concepts for this purpose are 1) equalizing the temperature among cylinders by flow optimization, 2) cooling the required area intensively, 3) adopting ‘active flow control’ and 4) enlarging fuel economy at high speed range. In order to realize the cooling concept, 1) cross-flow, 2) compact water jacket & exhaust cooling, 3) flow control valve and 4) cylinder head with integrated exhaust manifold are considered. Improvement of knocking and friction reduction by increased cooling water temperature makes fuel efficiency possible. On the other hand, in order to strengthen the cooling around the combustion chamber and to reduce the deviation among the combustion chamber of cylinders, it is required to design the head water jacket shape accordingly.

The driver’s seat in heavy trucks is designed for an upright driving posture with narrow back and cushion angles; thus, the seatback offers very little support. This makes the sitting posture prone to shifting during long trips, leading to loss of comfort and increase in fatigue. Sitting posture stability allows initial posture to be maintained during long drives, and the lack of stability causes fatigue and body pain during the drive. This study confirmed that enhancement of sitting posture stability of the driver’s seat in heavy trucks requires appropriate support from the cushion. The study also analyzed the support characteristics of each part of the cushion, and presented development guidelines of new cushion. Although subjective assessments of sitting posture stability have been performed, this study presented a method for quantitative and efficient assessment of sitting posture stability using the PAM-COMFORT simulation tool and virtual testing.

In this study, two-phase flow simulations have been performed for the intake system of a commercial truck. The intake duct, which is the first component in heavy-duty engine, is located in the upper side of a cabin. The flow in the intake system is a typical two-phase flow with the air as the continuous phase and the water as the dispersed phase during rainy weather. The numerical two-phase simulation is performed by using the Largrangian model as implemented in STAR-CD. The influence of the water droplets on the airflow as well as droplet break-up and interactions of the droplets with the walls can be taken into account. Two and three cyclone model inside the intake system have been investigated by numerical simulations. The computational results can be used to get a better understanding of the physics of the flow inside the intake system and to optimize the water separation.