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For diesel/natural gas dual fuel engines, the combustion of pilot diesel injection plays an important role to subsequent mixture combustion process. To better understand the effects of multiple injections, a detailed study was conducted on a 6-cylinder turbocharged intercooler diesel/natural gas dual fuel heavy-duty engine at low loads. Multiple variables were tested, including the single injection timings, the multiple injections timings and the mass ratios. The investigated results showed that the multiple pilot diesel injections have an obvious effect on not only pilot diesel combustion process but also natural gas mixture combustion process. Early injection leads to a pilot-diesel-ignition-mode and it is a two-stage auto ignition mode. This mode differs from the compression ignition mode of traditional diesel engine in regard to its random occurrence location within the spray.

Vehicle detection has been a fundamental problem in the research of Intelligent Traffic System (ITS), especially in urban driving environment. Over the past decades, vision-based vehicle detection has got a considerable attention. In addition to the rich appearance information, the stereo vision method also provides depth information, which could achieve higher accuracy and precision. In this paper, a hybrid method for stereo vision-based real-time vehicle detection in urban environment is proposed. Firstly, we extract vehicle features and generate the Region of Interest (ROI). Semi-global Matching (SGM) algorithm is then utilized on the ROIs to generate disparity maps and get the depth information, which could be used to compute the width of each ROI. The noise regions, always with obvious depth variation in the disparity maps are excluded by the clustering approach.

Steering-by-wire(SBW) system makes the vehicle not constrained by the steering wheel control. Joystick, button and touch screen can all be used for automobile steering control. Using joystick to achieve steering operations has its unique advantages and many problems which are needed to be resolved at the same time. This paper firstly introduced the components of traditional steering wheel steer-by-wire system, then came up with the difference between joystick steer-by-wire system and traditional steer-by-wire system about transmission ratio, transmission ratio control strategy of joystick steer-by-wire system is proposed at the same time. At last, this paper studied driver’s busy degree when the vehicle running with a big turning radius at low speed and the effect of different angle transmission ratio on vehicle handing stability when the vehicle running at intermediate speed.

Electric power steering (EPS), active front wheel steering (AFS) and steer by wire systems (SBW) can enhance the handling stability and safety of the vehicle, even in dangerous working conditions. Now, the development of the electric control steering system (ECS) is mainly based on the way that combines the test of the electric steering hardware-in-loop (HIL) test bench with real vehicle tests. However, the real vehicle tests with higher cost, long cycle and vulnerable to space weather have the potential safety problems at early development. On contrast, electronic control steering HIL test bench can replace real vehicle tests under various working conditions and make previous preparations for real vehicle road tests, so as to reduce the number of real vehicle test, shorten the development cycle, lower development costs, which has gradually become the important link of research and development of electronic steering system.

This paper presents a simultaneous longitudinal and lateral motion control strategy for a full drive-by-wire autonomous vehicle. A nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) problem is formulated in which the nonlinear prediction model utilizes a spatial transformation to derive the dynamics of the vehicle about the reference trajectory, which facilitates the acquisition of the tracking errors at varying speeds. A reference speed profile generator is adopted by taking account of the road geometry information, such that the lateral stability is guaranteed and the lane guidance performance is improved. Finally, the nonlinear multi-variable optimization problem is simplified by considering only three motion control efforts, which are strictly confined within a convex set and are readily distributed to the four tires of a full drive-by-wire vehicle.

In order to improve the performance of low temperature combustion of diesel engines to achieve ultra-low emissions and load condition expansions, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) stratification in the cylinder was proposed to further intensify local EGR concentration and reduce the amount of EGR to acquire high average oxygen concentration within cylinder. In this study, the intake/exhaust port and combustion chamber models were explored by CFD software on a four-valve HD diesel engine, and fresh air and EGR respectively replaced by O2 and CO2 were introduced with division and timing intake strategies during the intake process for stratification optimization.

In recent years, strict emission regulations, the environmental awareness, and the high price of conventional fuels have led to the creation of incentive to promote alternative fuels. Among the alternative fuels, natural gas is very promising and highly attractive for its abundant resources, clean nature of combustion and low encouraging prices. But nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions are still a problem in natural gas engines. In order to reduce NOx emissions, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2) and argon (Ar) were respectively introduced to dilute fuel-air mixtures in the cylinder. To this aim a 6.62 L, 6-cylinder, turbocharged, electronic controlled large-powered NG engine was subjected to a basic performance test to observe the effects of CO2, N2 and Ar on fuel economy and NOx emissions. During the test, the engine speed and torque were separately kept at 1450 r/min and 350 Nm.

In the internal combustion engine (ICE), about 40% of fuel energy is released into the atmosphere through waste gas. To recovery the energy, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has been widely used, and lots of previous studies have selected the rotating turbine as the expander of ORC. However, the rotating turbine has disadvantages of high manufacturing cost and narrow applicable range. For the above reasons, a free piston with constant force output which functions as expander in ORC is proposed to recover the waste energy of exhaust gas from internal combustion engine (ICE). In the system, the free piston with constant force output operates reciprocally to output work under the driving of working fluid R245ca, which absorbs heat from waste gas and provides vapor power.

To research the torsional vibration damping characteristic of magneto-rheological fluid dual mass flywheel (MRF-DMF) and the control system in power train, the multi-degree power train torsional vibration model which contains MRF-DMF and semi-active fuzzy control model are built, then the damping characteristic of MRF-DMF in several conditions are gained and compared with MRF-DMF when no control system. The result indicates: the damping characteristic of MRF-DMF effect on power train when using control is better than without control in idle, speed up, slow down, ignition and stalling, while the damping characteristic is less obvious in constant speed because the simulation condition and damping moment relatively stable.

In order to improve structure and performance of magneto-rheological dual mass flywheel (MRF-DMF), some parameters effects on dynamic characteristics are acquired by parameters analysis. The dynamic stiffness and loss angle in different current and different frequency are gained through dynamic characteristic test. The fluid-structure interaction finite element model of MRF-DMF is built and the accuracy is verified by comparison between test and simulation. Based on the model, the parameters analysis is done and the law of MRF viscosity, arc spring stiffness, working clearance, rotor radius and axial width effect on dynamic characteristics are gained, it will prove some guidance for the structure and performance improvement.

Four-wheel independent control electric vehicle is a new type of x-by-wire EV with four wheels independent steering and four wheels independent drive/brake systems. In order to take full advantage of the vehicle's performance potential, this paper presents a novel integrated chassis control strategy. In the paper, the strategy is designed by the hierarchical control structure and divided into integrated control layer and allocation layer. By this method, the control logical can be modularized and simplified. In the integrated control layer, Model Prediction Control (MPC) is adopted to design the integrated control unit, which belongs to be a kind of local optimization algorithm with feedback correction features. Using this method could avoid the system performance degradation caused by the control model mismatch. The control allocation layer is to optimally distribute the vehicle control forces to the steering/driving/brake actuators on each wheel.

This paper presents a torque distribution algorithm to improve the energy efficiency of four-wheel-drive (4WD) electric vehicles with PMSM hub motors. In order to optimize the torque distribution method, at first the motor model considering the affect of iron loss and the loss model of multi-motors drive system of 4WD electric vehicle with PMSM hub motors, which operate at straight-line condition, are established. Besides, realize the online identification of motor parameters based on the MARS, which is important for updating the loss model parameters of the motor drive system. By doing this, the ideal torque distribution ratio can be obtained from the loss model in real-time. The simulation result using different distribution algorithms shows that the optimized torque distribution algorithm based on the loss model can be useful for improving the energy efficiency.

Four-wheel-drive electric vehicles (4WD Evs) utilize in-wheel electric motors and Electro-Hydraulic Braking system (EHB). Then, all wheels torque can be controlled independently, and the braking pressure can be controlled more accurately and more fast than conventional braking system. Because of these advantages, 4WD Evs have potential applications in control engineering. In this paper, the in-wheel electric motors and EHB are applied as actuators in the vehicle stability control system. Based on the Direct Yaw-moment Control (DYC), the optimized wheel force distribution is given, and the coordination control of the hydraulic braking and the motor braking torque is considered. Then the EHB hardware-in-the-loop test bench is established in order to verify the effectiveness of the vehicle stability control algorithm through experiments.

For high torque permanent magnet wheel motor, this paper describes an experimental research method to optimize and identify the motor parameters based on the results of offline calculation. In order to improve the accuracy of motor parameters identification, the motor model considering the affect of iron loss was established, and the motor parameters were identified using genetic algorithm (GA). Based on this, parameters validation experiment was performed. The results show that: parameters obtained by this method can be used to describe the steady-state and transient-state response of permanent magnet synchronous motors accurately.

In order to improve the braking energy recovery and ensure the braking comfort, a new type of regenerative braking coordinated control algorithm is designed in this paper. The hierarchical control theory is used to the regenerative braking control algorithm. First, the front axle braking force and rear axle braking force are distributed. Then the rear axle motor braking force and mechanical braking force are distributed. Finally, the dynamic coordinated control strategy is designed to control pneumatic braking system and motor braking system. Aimed at keeping the fluctuation of the total braking force of friction and the regenerative braking force small during braking modes switch, a coordinated controller was designed to control the pneumatic braking system to compensate the error of the motor braking force. Based on Matlab/Simulink platform, a parallel hybrid electric bus simulation model with electric braking system (EBS) was established.

Pressure following control is the basic function of Electro-Hydraulic Braking system (EHB), which is also the key technology of stability control system and regenerative braking system for hybrid and electric vehicles. Experimental research is an important method for the control and application of EHB. This paper describes a method to test and control the EHB system through experiment on the Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test bench and wheel motor electric vehicle. First, the HIL test bench was established, in which the EHB was tested, including the characteristics of solenoid valves and motor. Then the wheel cylinder pressure was controlled to follow the specific signal input and the master cylinder pressure. Based on this, EHB and the pressure following control method were applied to the wheel motor electric vehicle. The results show that the braking pressure can follow the driver's braking intention to realize the conventional braking function of electric vehicles.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) blended with diesel without further component recovery which has high costs blocking the industrial-scale production of bio-butanol. The combustion characteristics of ABE and diesel blends were studied in a constant volume chamber. In this study, 50% and 80% vol. ABE (without water) were mixed with diesel and the vol. % of acetone, butanol and ethanol were kept at 30%, 60% and 10% respectively. The in-cylinder pressure was recorded using a pressure transducer and the time-resolved natural luminosity was captured by high speed imaging. Combustion visualization using laser diagnostics would provide crucial fundamental information of the fuel's combustion characteristics. With the different percentage of the ABE blended in the diesel, the soot oxidation, the ignition delay and the soot lift-off length were studied in this work.

Impact torque will be generated on the steering wheel when one tire suddenly blows out on high way, which may cause driver's psychological stress and result in driver's certain misoperations on the car. In this paper, the model of tire blowout vehicle was established; the tire blowout was detected based on the change rate of tire pressure, meanwhile, the rack force caused by tire blowout was estimated through a reduce observer; finally the compensation current was figured out to reduce the impact torque on the steering wheel. Results of simulation tests showed that the control strategy proposed in this paper can effectively reduce the impact torque on the steering wheel and reduce the driver's discomfort caused by tire blowout.

The properties of contact patch are key factors for tire modeling. Researchers have paid more attention to the contact patch shape and vertical pressure distribution. Some innovative concepts, such as Local Carcass Camber, have been presented to explain special tire modeling phenomena. For a pragmatic tire model, a concise model structure and fewer parameters are considered as the primary tasks for the modeling. Many empirical tire models, such as the well-known Magic Formula model, would become more complex to achieve satisfactory modeling accuracy, due to increasing number of input variables, so the semi-empirical or semi-physical modeling method becomes more attractive. In this paper, the concept of Tire Carcass Camber is introduced first. Different from Local Carcass Camber, Tire Carcass Camber is an imaginary camber angle caused only by lateral force on the unloaded tire.

In order to improve the braking energy recovery, a parallel hybrid electric bus simulation model with electric braking system (EBS) was established by co-simulation platform for the TruckSim and Matlab/Simulink in this paper. EBS makes the front and rear shaft braking force arbitrarily distributed, which is more effective to improve the rate of energy recovery and the braking stability. A braking force distribution algorithm for hybrid electric bus based on EBS was designed in this paper. Under the premise to meet the driver's needs and the ECE regulations, this braking force distribution method focuses on making the braking force distribute to the drive shaft to a maximum extent, so as to obtain the maximum energy recovery rate by the utilization of the motor regenerative braking. At last, the simulation in different operating conditions was used to analyze the braking energy utilization and the braking performance based on the simulation model.