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One of the five major performances of vehicles, NVH(Noise, Vibration, Harshness), has recently emerged in electric vehicles, again. And, front loading NVH simulation is essential to respond nimbly to automotive industry these days. However, the two components of the simulation, mathematical sound absorption modeling equation, and the acoustic parameters, the input factor, is requiring improvement because of lack of robustness. In this study, we tried to strengthen, standardize, and refine the connectivity between micro (fine structure) and macro (acoustic parameter-related physical properties) characteristics, and improve the consistency with actual NVH performance. As a porous polymer material, polyurethane foam, which is widely used for the interior and exterior of automobiles, is treated as a target material.

Even if an optimal design is produced in the mid-to-late stages of development, when the maturity of development is increasing, it is already difficult to accept the proposal between the organizations and functions. In case the optimal proposal is made with a small amount of information in the preceding stage, it will be helpful for mutual decision-making. In addition, if all members have a system and development environment that enables access and utilization of necessary data in a timely manner, it is possible to produce quick results through collaboration. To implement such a system and development environment, “digital modeling" of tangible and intangible assets will be essential and to implement an "integrated IT environment" that can access and utilize digital models. Until now, Hyundai Motor Company has not yet fully established a digital development environment that all researchers can simultaneously utilize during the concept development stage.

As data science technologies are being widely applied on various industries, the importance of data itself increased. A typical manufacturer company has a vast data set of products as 2D&3D drawing formats, but a common problem was that building a database from the 2D&3D drawings costs much, and it is hard to update the database after it once built. Also, it is high-cost job when the new factor researched and necessary to investigate the new factors on previously fixed or uploaded drawings. As new products are developed with time, these problems are getting more difficult. In this paper, an automated database building method using CATIA introduced and future probabilities are suggested. An aluminum wheel part was used as an example. An automated logic used CATIA V5’s VBA functions and was handled by python programming language.

The body stiffness plays a key role in vehicle performance, such as noise and vibration, ride and handling, durability and so on. In particular, a body D-pillar ring structure is the most sensitive affecting the body stiffness on vehicle with tail gate. Therefore, since D-pillar body ring structure for high stiffness and lightweight is required, an optimized design methodology that simultaneously satisfies the requirements was studied. It focused on a methodology that body engineering designers can optimize design parameters easily and quickly by themselves in the preceding stages of vehicle’s styling distribution and design conceptual planning. First, it is important to establish the body stiffness design strategy by predicting the body stiffness with the vehicle’s styling at early design stage. The methodology to predict body stiffness with the styling and body dimension specification parameters was introduced.

NVH analysis based on numerical simulations before actual test vehicle is available becomes common process in the automotive industry. Furthermore, the latest work scope is extending even to conceptual study in the very early design stage, beyond traditional numerical simulations simply using 3-D CAD data. In case when reasonable information is provided at this very early vehicle development stage, a better decision on the design concept would be possible, and subsequent design process can be carried out in more efficient manner. The core of this trend is that it allows us to predict vehicle performance at the conceptual design stage without 3-D CAD data, and then, with this prediction, to suggest meaningful design directions for next stage. From this point of view, FRF-Based Substructuring (FBS) methodology has potential to be used as an appropriate tool for this purpose.

In this study it will show, big data analysis and user survey of driving records were conducted to investigate frequency of use and ease of operation of the regen paddle to control one-pedal driving system in electric vehicle. According to 3.8 million driving record big data analysis result, it was found that the driver manipulates 3.31 times on average during a single trip, mainly during the early stages of driving. According to user observation research result in 41.8% of participants did not used or used less than 5 time of regen paddle during one single trip. Also 336 participants, which occupy 83%, responded that the regen paddle manipulation for one-pedal driving was inconvenient. In conclusion, because of the use frequency of the regen paddle is low and the operation of regen paddle is inconvenient. It seems necessary to change the design of the regen paddle.

In recent years, the automobile industry has been making efforts to develop vehicles that satisfy customers' emotions rather than malfunctions. The Vehicle Dependability Study(VDS) has been strengthened emotion items since the introduction of the new evaluation system VDS3 from 2015. The ratio of emotion items increased from 11% to 25%. In order to clarify the problem and cause of emotion items, we analyzed verbatim which is the customers' complaint data provided by J.D power every year, but it was difficult to extract customers' intention because the number of verbatim is small and expressed in terms of customer’s term rather than engineer’s term. To solve the problem, we are additionally colleting big data such as internet, warranty, online survey. Since the amount of data is very large, we developed textmining techniques such as dictionary, topic, Support Vector Machine(SVM), n-gram to improve process.

For making metal touch feeling and lighting simultaneously, selective electroplating is widely applied in button, panel and etc. in interior/exterior parts of automotive. In this paper, new selective electroplating with printing are suggested as an alternative manufacturing process of two shot molding, PC (Polycarbonate) and ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene). Manufacturing process of selective electroplating with printing is as follows: For preventing to plate metal layer in area of letter or symbol, masking ink is printed on parts, button, panel, etc., with electroplatable PC+ABS. After conventional electroplating process, the part has electroplated metal layer except for the printed area. It had been studied the composition of ink and PC+ABS for obtaining skip plating and light transmittance on printed area.

The friction properties related to squeal noise was analyzed with the development histories and simplified computational method. Firstly, the development histories were investigated especially focusing on the case which the friction materials were modified to improve squeal noise occurrence. Based on the histories, the friction properties of selected friction materials were newly measured using dynamometer. The average friction coefficient levels, torque oscillations, the increment of friction coefficient during full-stop, and etc. were compared with the squeal noise occurrence, and the results showed that increase of friction properties cause production of squeal noise. The result suggested that the size of friction energy was important factors related to triggering the squeal noise. Also, the contact conditions between rotor disc and friction materials were significant factors deciding the noise occurrence.

In the automotive sector, the structure borne noise generated by the engine and road-tire interactions is a major source of noise inside the passenger cavity. In order to increase the global acoustic comfort, predictive simulation models must be available in the design phase. The acoustic trims have a major impact on the noise level inside the car cavity. Although several publications for this kind of simulations can be found, an extensive correlation study with measurement is needed, in order to validate the modeling approaches. In this article, a detailed correlation study for a complete car is performed. The acoustic trim package of the measured car includes all acoustic trims, such as carpet, headliner, seats and firewall covers. The simulation methodology relies on the influence of the acoustic trim package on the car structure and acoustic cavities. The challenge lies in the definition of an efficient and accurate framework for acoustic trimmed bodies.

Drivers continually require steering performance improvement, particularly in the area of feedback from the road. In this study, we develop a new electrically-assisted steering logic by 1) analyzing existing steering systems to determine key factors, 2) modeling an ideal steering system from which to obtain a desirable driver torque, 3) developing a rack force observer to faithfully represent road information and 4) building a feedback compensator to track the tuned torque. In general, the estimator uses the driver torque, assist torque and other steering system signals. However, the friction of the steering system is difficult to estimate accurately. At high speed, where steering feeling is very important, greater friction results in increased error. In order to solve this problem, we design two estimators generated from a vehicle model and a steering system model. The observer that uses two estimators can reflect various operating conditions by using the strengths of each method.

In the past few years, technological innovations in the automobile industry took vehicle performance to the next level. One such innovation is frame integrated panel door. This type of door helps automobile companies to have the advantages of both conventional panel and frame type doors. Though it has a good number of advantages, there are some drawbacks too. It requires improvements in its quality, NVH performance, weight and etc. Quality of a door is low due to the limitations in structural design and manufacturing technologies. And it is difficult to have a robust structure which leads to degradation of key performing factors such as NVH. For a lightweight vehicle, it is important to design an optimized structure for saving weight, without compromising its performance. In order to overcome these drawbacks a new optimized design structure is required for door system.

Automotive companies are trying to enhance the customer’s impression by improving engine sound quality. The target of this sound quality is to create a brand sound that is preferred by their customers as well as quietness of interior noise. Over the past decade there have been many studies in the field of automotive sound quality. These have included the technologies such as tuning of intake orifice and exhaust orifice, tuning of structure-borne, intake feedback devices, active exhaust valves, ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) and ASD (Active Sound Design). The three elements of the sound that affect the feeling of the customer are known as engine order arrangement, frequency balance, and linearity. Here, the most important thing in sound quality development is the order arrangement.

The tire is the vital element in vehicle dynamics, as its contact patch transmits all forces and moments to the ground (accelerating, braking, cornering, rolling).Over the recent decades tire development for passenger cars has been continuously improved and optimized in order to achieve a good overall vehicle performance in R&H that is in balance with all other tire performances (Wear, Durability, NVH, RR, Miles). This general development process has to be suitable for various vehicle types from regular passenger cars over eco-friendly hybrid or electric vehicles to high performance sport cars. The balance between Ride and Handling performance is further adjusted to local customer preferences that are usually distinguished by markets (US, EU, Asia). The tire development process, which is embedded in the overall vehicle development, is usually realized in a mutual collaboration between OEM and tire supplier.

An efficient method to determine optimal bushing stiffness for improving noise and vibration of passenger cars is developed. In general, a passenger vehicle includes various bushings to connect body and chassis systems. These bushings control forces transferred between the systems. Noise and vibration of a vehicle are mainly caused by the forces from powertrain (engine and transmission) and road excitation. If bushings transfer less force to the body, levels of noise and vibration will be decreased. In order to manage the forces, bushing stiffness plays an important role. Therefore, it is required to properly design bushing stiffness when developing passenger vehicles. In the development process of a vehicle, bushing stiffness is decided in the early stage (before the test of an actual vehicle) and it is not validated until the test is performed.

This paper is concerned with the energy management strategy of hybrid electric vehicle using stochastic dynamic programming. The aim is the control strategy of the power distribution for hybrid electric vehicle powertrains to minimize fuel consumption while maintaining drivability. The fuel economy of hybrid electric vehicle is strongly influenced by power management control strategy. Rule-based control strategy is popular strategy thanks to its effectiveness in real-time implementation, but rule should be designed and efficiency of entire drive trains is not optimized. Dynamic programming, one of optimization-based control strategy presents outstanding performance, but cannot be used as real-time control strategy directly, since its non-causal property and drawback that global optimal solution can only be obtained for specific driving cycle. In this paper, stochastic dynamic programming is applied to parallel hybrid electric vehicle to optimize vehicle performance in average sense.

This paper presents an industrial application of the Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) methodology to the optimal design of commercial vehicle steering and suspension system. This is a pilot study about the suspension and steering design of a semi medium bus, whose objective is to develop and introduce an ATC methodology to an automobile development process. In the conventional process, it is difficult not only to find design variables which meet the target of Ride and Handling (R&H) performance using a detailed full car model, but also to figure out the interrelation between the vehicle and its subsystems. In this study, ATC methodology is used in order to obtain the optimal values such as geometric characteristics satisfying both the vehicle's R&H target and the subsystem (suspension and steering system) 's target.

Systematic numerical simulations were performed for the improvement of fuel efficiency and thermal performance of a compact size passenger vehicle. Both aerodynamic and thermal aspects were considered concurrently. For the sake of systematic evaluation, our study was conducted employing various design changes in multiple steps: 1) analysis of the baseline design; 2) elimination of the engine room components; 3) modification of the engine room component layout; 4) modification of the aerodynamic components (such as under body cover and cooling ducts). The vehicle performance characteristics corresponding to different design options were analyzed in terms of aerodynamic coefficient, engine coolant temperature, and surface temperatures of thermally critical components such as battery and exhaust manifold. Finally optimal design modification solutions for better vehicle performance were proposed.

With the recent development of technologies for interpreting vibration and noise of vehicles, it has become possible for carmakers to reduce idle vibration and driving noise in the phase of preceding development. Thus, the issue of noise generation is drawing keen attention from production of prototype car through mass-production development. J. D. Power has surveyed the levels of customer satisfaction with all vehicles sold in the U.S. market and released the Initial Quality Study (IQS) index. As a growing number of emotional quality-related items are added to the IQS evaluation index, it is necessary to secure a sufficiently high quality level of low-frequency speaker sound against rattle noise. It is required to make a preceding review on the package tray panel, which is located at the bottom of the rear glass where the woofer speakers of a passenger sedan are installed, the door module panel in which the door speakers are built.

This paper describes a torque steer reduction process for a front-wheel drive car with a high torque engine at the initial stage of vehicle development. Literature reviews for the reduction process and vehicle integration tradeoffs among chassis components, driveline components, and loading condition are included. Drive shaft angle and its stiffness, differential gear stiffness, and power train mount, and vehicle weight distribution are mainly considered. In addition, wheel alignment data such as kingpin offset, kingpin inclination, camber angle, ride height, and dynamic tire radius are also discussed to solve the torque steer problem. This paper introduces an example solution to improve the torque steer during vehicle development stage. In that case, the vehicle parameters should be considered the factors to achieve many requirements. In spite of that restriction of alteration, the result of improvement became better than that of its competitor.