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The interaction of fuel sprays and in-cylinder flow in direct-injection engines is expected to alter kinetic energy and integral length scales at least during some portions of the engine cycle. High-speed particle image velocimetry was implemented in an optical four-valve, pent-roof spark-ignition direct-injection single-cylinder engine to quantify this effect. Non-firing motored engine tests were performed at 1300 RPM with and without fuel injection. Two fuel injection timings were investigated: injection in early intake stroke represents quasi-homogenous engine condition; and injection in mid compression stroke mimics the stratified combustion strategy. Two-dimensional crank angle resolved velocity fields were measured to examine the kinetic energy and integral length scale through critical portions of the engine cycle. Reynolds decomposition was applied on the obtained engine flow fields to extract the fluctuations as an indicator for the turbulent flow.

This paper presents the characterization of the random noise in driveline output shaft torque measurements that is commonly induced by road disturbances. To investigate the interaction between the shaft torque and road side excitation, torque signals are measured using a magnetoelastic torque sensor, as well as a conventional strain gauge sensor, under various types of road surfaces and conditions such as unevenness. A generalized de-trending method for producing a stationary random signal is first conducted. Statistical methods, in particular the probability density function and transform technique, are utilized to provide an evident signature for identifying the road excitation effect on the vehicle output shaft torque. Analysis results show how the road surface can act as a disturbance input to the vehicle shaft torque.

A summary of the design and development process for a Formula SAE engine is described. The focus is on three fundamental elements on which the entire engine package is based. The first is engine layout and displacement, second is the fuel type, and third is the air induction method. These decisions lead to a design around a 4-cylinder 600cc motorcycle engine, utilizing a turbocharger and ethanol E-85 fuel. Concerns and constraints involved with vehicle integration are also highlighted. The final design was then tested on an engine dynamometer, and finally in the 2007 M-Racing FSAE racecar.

Fatigue behaviors of aluminum 5754-O spot friction welds made by a concave tool in lap-shear specimens are investigated based on experimental observations and a fatigue life estimation model. Optical micrographs of the welds before and after failure under quasi-static and cyclic loading conditions are examined. The micrographs indicate that the failure modes of the 5754 spot friction welds under quasi-static and cyclic loading conditions are quite different. The dominant kinked fatigue cracks for the final failures of the welds under cyclic loading conditions are identified. Based on the experimental observations of the paths of the dominant kinked fatigue cracks, a fatigue life estimation model based on the stress intensity factor solutions for finite kinked cracks is adopted to estimate the fatigue lives of the welds.

In this investigation, dissimilar 5754/7075 and 7075/5754 spot friction welds were first made under different processing conditions. The spot friction welds in lap-shear specimens were tested under quasi-static loading conditions. The optimal processing times to maximize the failure loads of the 5754/7075 and 7075/5754 welds under lap-shear loading conditions are identified. The maximum failure load of the 7075/5754 welds is about 40% larger than that of the 5754/7075 welds. Optical micrographs of both types of spot friction welds made at different processing times before and after failure are examined. The micrographs show different weld geometries and different failure modes of spot friction welds made at different processing times. The failure modes of the 5754/7075 and 7075/5754 spot friction welds appear to be quite complex and strongly depend on the geometry and the strength of the interfacial surface between the two deformed sheet materials.

The greatest demand facing the automotive industry has been to provide safer vehicles with high fuel efficiency at minimum cost. Current automotive vehicle structures have one fundamental handicap: a short crumple zone for crash energy absorption. This leaves limited room for further safety improvement, especially for high-speed crashes. Breakthrough technologies are needed. One potential breakthrough is to use active devices instead of conventional passive devices. An innovative inflatable bumper concept [1], called the “I-bumper,” is being developed by the authors for crashworthiness and safety of military and commercial vehicles. The proposed I-bumper has several active structural components, including a morphing mechanism, a movable bumper, two explosive airbags, and a morphing lattice structure with a locking mechanism that provides desired rigidity and energy absorption capability during a vehicular crash.

In the I-bumper (inflatable bumper) concept [1], two explosive airbags are released just before the main body-to-body crash in order to absorb the kinetic energy of colliding vehicles. The release also actuates other components in the I-bumper, including a movable bumper and an energy absorption morphing lattice structure. A small explosive charge will be used to deploy the airbag. A conventional airbag model will be used to reduce the crash energy in a controlled manner and reduce the peak impact force. An analytic model of the explosive airbag is developed in this paper for the I-bumper system and for its optimal design, while the complete system design (I-bumper) will be discussed in a separate paper. Analytical formulations for an explosive airbag will be developed and major design variables will be identified. These are used to determine the required amount of explosive and predict airbag behavior, as well to predict their impact on the I-bumper system.

When performing vibration analysis of complex vehicle structures, it is often important to be able to evaluate the effects of design changes in one or more substructures (e.g., for design optimization). It may also be convenient to allow different components to be modeled independently by different groups or organizations. For both cases, it is inevitable that some substructures will have non-matching finite element meshes at the interface where they are physically connected. Thus, a key challenge is to be able to handle the dynamic assembly of components with non-matching meshes and the subsequent global vibration analysis in a systematic and efficient manner. To tackle this problem, the enhancement of component mode synthesis methods for handling finite element models partitioned into non-matching substructures is considered in this paper. Some existing methods are reviewed, and new methods are developed.

The hybrid Finite Element Analysis (hybrid FEA) has been developed for performing structure-borne computations in automotive vehicle structures [1, 2 and 3]. The hybrid FEA method combines conventional FEA with Energy FEA (EFEA). Conventional FEA models are employed for modeling the behavior of the stiff members in a system. Appropriate damping and spring or mass elements are introduced in the connections between stiff and flexible members in order to capture the presence of the flexible members during the analyses of the stiff ones. The component mode synthesis method is combined with analytical solutions for determining the driving point conductance at joints between stiff and flexible members and for defining the properties of the concentrated elements which represent the flexible members when analyzing the stiff components.

The feature of offered algorithm is that it allows, without record and analysis of the display diagram, to estimate a running cycle of a diesel engine parameters which characterize ecological and economic performances. The mathematical model described in report allows to determine connection of coefficient of filling, pressure and temperature of air boost, factor of excess of air with effectiveness ratio of combustion and contents of soot in exhaust gas and to take into account this connection at a choice initial data for control fuel feed or for elaboration of diesel engine dynamic model. The algorithm incorporated, for example, in the microcontroller of an electronic fuel feed controller allows analyzing the sensors data and theoretically determine of smoke amount in the exhaust gases for chosen cycle of fuel feed. The restriction of smoke is possible by criterion dD/dGT, where D - contents of soot in exhaust gas and GT - fuel cycle submission under the program-adaptive schema.

A new development in the area of the hybrid Finite Element Analysis (hybrid FEA) is presented. The hybrid FEA method combines the conventional FEA method with energy FEA (EFEA) for analysis of systems that contain both flexible and stiff members, and is suitable for mid-frequency computations. A formulation for analyzing flexible plates spot-welded to stiff beams when the excitation is applied on the stiff members is developed. Conventional FEA models are employed for modeling the behavior of the stiff members in a system. Appropriate damping elements are introduced in the connections between stiff and flexible members in order to capture the presence of the flexible members during the analyses of the stiff ones.

Posture selection during standing exertions is a complex process involving tradeoffs between muscle strength and balance. Bodyweight utilization reduces the amount of upper-body strength required to perform a high force push/pull exertion but shifts the center-of-gravity towards the limits of the functional stability region. Thus balance constraints limit the extent to which bodyweight can be used to generate push/pull forces. This paper examines a two-handed sagittal plane pulling exertion performed during a battery maintenance task on a member of the family of medium-sized tactical vehicles (FMTV). Percent capable strength predictions and functional balance capabilities were determined for various two-handed pulling postures using the University of Michigan's 3D Static Strength Prediction Program (3DSSPP). Through this simulation study, preferred postures that minimize joint torques while maintaining balance were identified.

The effects of image size on perceived distance have been of concern for convex rearview mirrors as well as camera-based rear vision systems. We suggest that the importance of image size is limited to cases-such as current rearview mirrors-in which the field of view is small. With larger, richer fields of view it is likely that other distance cues will dominate image size, thereby substantially diminishing the concern that distortions of size will result in distortions of distance perception. We report results from an experiment performed in a driving simulator, with static simulated rearward images, in which subjects were asked to make judgments about the distance to a rearward vehicle. The images showed a field of view substantially wider than provided by any of the individual rearview mirrors in current systems. The field of view was 38 degrees wide and was presented on displays that were either 16.7 or 8.5 degrees wide, thus minifying images by factors of 0.44 or 0.22.

Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) technology provides high potential in achieving high performance, low fuel consumption and pollutant reduction. However, more degrees of freedom impose a big challenge for engine characterization and calibration. In this study, a simulation based approach and optimization framework is proposed to optimize the setpoints of multiple independent control variables. Since solving an optimization problem typically requires hundreds of function evaluations, a direct use of the high-fidelity simulation tool leads to the unbearably long computational time. Hence, the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are trained with high-fidelity simulation results and used as surrogate models, representing engine's response to different control variable combinations with greatly reduced computational time. To demonstrate the proposed methodology, the cam-phasing strategy at Wide Open Throttle (WOT) is optimized for a dual-independent Variable Valve Timing (VVT) engine.

A combination of imaging techniques for investigations of highly transient processes and cyclic variations in internal combustion engines is presented. The single high-speed camera setup uses a CMOS camera combined with a two-stage image-intensifier and two excimer lasers. Fuel mixing, ignition and combustion were monitored via planar laser induced fluorescence imaging of toluene as a tracer that was added to iso-octane in combination with the simultaneous recording of light emission from the spark plasma and OH* chemiluminescence of the developing flame. Image frame rates of 12 kHz for hundreds of cycles were achieved. Application to misfire events in a spray-guided gasoline direct-injection engine is described to illustrate the merits of the technique.

A hybrid finite element formulation for analyzing flexible plates connected to stiff frame was developed. The excitation was considered to be applied on the stiff members. Conventional FEA models were employed for modeling the behavior of the stiff members in a system. Appropriate damping elements were introduced in the connections between stiff and flexible members in order to capture the presence of the flexible members during the analyses of the stiff ones. Once the vibration of the stiff members and the amount of power dissipated at the damping elements was identified, an EFEA analysis was performed in order to determine the amount of vibrational energy in the flexible members. The hybrid FEA is applied to a Body-In-White (BIW). The results of the hybrid FEA are compared with results from very dense conventional finite element analyses.

Numerical models are used for computing the shock response in many areas of engineering applications. Current analysis methods do not account for uncertainties in the model parameters. In addition, when numerical models are calibrated based on test data neither the uncertainty which is present in the test data nor the uncertainty in the model are taken into account. In this paper an approach for model update under uncertainty and error estimation for shock applications is presented. Fast running models are developed for the model update based on principal component analysis and surrogate models. Once the numerical model has been updated the fast running models are employed for performing probabilistic analyses and estimate the error in the numerical solution. The new developments are applied for computing the shock response of large scale structures, updating the numerical model based on test data, and estimating the error in the predictions.

A four-valve-pentroof, direct-injection, optical engine fueled with n-heptane has been operated at four different steady-state HCCI operating conditions including 10% and 65% residuals, both at low and high swirl conditions. Both, planar toluene LIF and volume chemiluminescence show large scale inhomogeneity in the ensemble averaged images. The interpretation of the toluene-tracer LIF signals (when premixed with the fresh-air charge) as a marker for reaction homogeneity is discussed. A binarization scheme and a statistical analysis of the LIF images were applied to the per-cycle planar-LIF images revealing inhomogeneities both from cycle-to-cycle and within the regions of individual cycles that track with the average heat release rate. Comparison of these two homogeneity metrics between the four operating conditions reveals weak but discernable differences.

Quantitative planar laser-induced fluorescence measurements of fuel/air mixing in engines are usually based on the use of fluorescence tracers. The strength of the signals often depends on temperature, pressure and mixture composition. This complicates a quantitative analysis. The use of a small-bore optical engine for fundamental studies of absorption and fluorescence properties of fluorescence tracers is described. The temperature, pressure and composition dependence of the spectra of toluene, acetone, 3-pentanone, and biacetyl are examined under motored conditions to extend the experimental data base for the development of comprehensive models that predict the strength of fluorescence signals for a given condition.

Some of the best teaching methods are laboratory courses in which students experience application of the principles being presented. Preparing young engineering students for a career in the automotive industry challenges us to provide comparable opportunities to explore the dynamic performance of motor vehicles in a controlled environment. Today we are fortunate to have accurate and easy-to-use software programs making it practical for students to simulate the performance of motor vehicles on “virtual” proving grounds. At the University of Michigan the CarSim® vehicle dynamics simulation program has been introduced as such a tool to augment the learning experience. The software is used in the Automotive Engineering course to supplement homework exercises analyzing acceleration, braking, aerodynamics, and cornering performance. This paper provides an overview of the use of simulation in this setting.