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Sector mesh modeling is the dominant computational approach for combustion system design optimization. The aim of this work is to quantify the errors descending from the sector mesh approach through three geometric modeling approaches to an optical diesel engine. A full engine geometry mesh is created, including valves and intake and exhaust ports and runners, and a full-cycle flow simulation is performed until fired TDC. Next, an axisymmetric sector cylinder mesh is initialized with homogeneous bulk in-cylinder initial conditions initialized from the full-cycle simulation. Finally, a 360-degree azimuthal mesh of the cylinder is initialized with flow and thermodynamics fields at IVC mapped from the full engine geometry using a conservative interpolation approach. A study of the in-cylinder flow features until TDC showed that the geometric features on the cylinder head (valve tilt and protrusion into the combustion chamber, valve recesses) have a large impact on flow complexity.

The Composite Lightweight Automotive Suspension System is a composite rear suspension knuckle/tieblade consisting of UD prepreg (epoxy resin), SMC (vinylester resin) carbon fibre and a steel insert to reduce the weight of the component by 35% and reduce Co2. The compression moulding manufacturing process and CAE optimisation are unique and ground-breaking for this product and are designed to allow high volume manufacture of approx. 30,000 vehicles per year. The manufacturing techniques employed allow for multi-material construction within a five minute cycle time to make the process viable for volume manufacture. The complexities of the design lie in the areas of manufacturing, CAE prediction and highly specialised design methods. It is a well-known fact that the performance of a composite part is primarily determined by the way it is manufactured.

In the hybrid brake system of electric vehicle, due to the limitation of the motor braking force when the motor is at high speed and the failure of the regenerative braking force when the motor is at low speed, there are three transitional conditions in hybrid braking: the hydraulic brake system intervenes the braking, the hydraulic brake system withdraws the braking and the regenerative braking force withdraws the braking. Due to the response speed of the hydraulic system is slower than that of the motor, there is a large braking impact (the derivative of braking deceleration) in the transitional conditions of hybrid braking, which deteriorates the smoothness and comfort in braking. Aiming at the impact caused by the poor cooperation between the hydraulic braking force and the motor braking force, a coordinated strategy of double closed-loop feedback and motor force correction is proposed in this paper.

In the process of ABS control, the Anti-lock braking system (ABS) of the vehicle adjusts the wheel cylinder brake pressure through the hydraulic actuator so as to control the movement of the wheel. The high-speed on-off valve (HSV) is the key components of the Anti-lock braking system. HSV affects the performance of the hydraulic actuator and the valve response characteristics affects the Anti-lock braking system pressure response as well as braking effect. In this paper, the electromagnetic field theory and flow field theory of HSV are analyzed, and simulation analysis of electromagnetic field characteristics of HSV is done by ANSYS. Combined with the ANSYS analysis results, a precise physical model of HSV is constructed in AMESim. Meanwhile, the valve response characteristics are analyzed. Moreover, the influence of different wheel cylinder diameter and PWM carrier frequency on hydraulic braking force characteristics are analyzed.

In order to establish the correlation between objective and subjective evaluation of brake pedal feel for passenger cars, road tests of brake pedal feel were carried out and an evaluation method was proposed. In the road tests, subjective scores and objective measurements were obtained under the conditions of uniform and emergency braking. The objective measurements include pedal preload, low deceleration pedal force and travel, moderate deceleration pedal force and travel, brake response time and brake linearity. Using the theory of analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the design process of the evaluation method was established. Key setups including the hierarchical structure model, the judgement matrix and the score calculation method of objective measurements were described in detail. Then, the correlation between subjective and objective scores was analyzed. It can be concluded that the evaluation method is effective and it can be applied to brake pedal feel assessment and adjustment.

In order to explore the generation mechanism of hot-spots on the automotive brake disc, disc tests under non-frictional thermal loads are carried out on the brake dynamometer test bench. In the tests, the oxy-acetylene flame is used as the heat source, and the distribution characteristics of the disc temperature and displacement are measured and analyzed. To confirm the mechanism of the disc deformation, a disc thermal buckling model using finite element method is established, and the key factors for the disc thermal buckling under thermal loads are further analyzed. It is found that the temperature circumferential gradient is small but the temperature radial gradient is large. The disc presents waviness deformation mode with 5th order in circumferential direction, which is the first thermal buckling mode of the disc. A method using spatial frequency spectrum has been proposed to find the critical time and load of thermal buckling.

Automatic lane change of intelligent vehicles is a complex process. Besides of safety, feelings of the driver and passengers during the lane change are also very important. In this paper, a lane change trajectory planner is designed to generate an ideal collision-free trajectory to satisfy the driver’s preference. Various lane changing modes, gentle lane change, general lane change, radical lane change and personalized lane change, are designed to meet the needs of different passengers on vehicles simultaneously. In this paper, the condition of the two-lane change is studied. One vehicle is in front of the ego vehicle at the same lane and one is at the rear of the ego vehicle at the target lane. A trajectory planning method is then established based on constant speed offset and sine curve, vehicle distances and speed difference, etc. The key factors which can reflect drivers’ lane change characteristics are then acquired.

After obtaining the optimal trajectory through the lane change decision and trajectory planning, the last key technology for the automatic lane change assist system is to carry out the precise and rapid steering actuation according to the front wheel angle demand. Therefore, an automatic lane change system model including a BLDCM (brushless DC motor) model, a steering system model and a vehicle dynamics model is first established in this paper. Electromagnetic characteristics of the motor, the moment of the inertia and viscous friction etc. are considered in these models. Then, a SMC (Sliding Mode Control) algorithm for the steering system is designed to follow the steering angle input. The control torque of the steering motor is obtained through the system model according to steering angle demand. After that, the control current is calculated considering of electromagnetic characteristics of the BLDCM. Debugging and optimization of the control algorithm are done through simulations.

The automatic lane change assist system is an intelligent driving assistance technology oriented to traffic safety, which requires trajectory planning of the lane change maneuver based on the lane change decision. A typical scene of lane change for overtaking is selected, where the front vehicle in the same lane and the rear vehicle in the left lane are deemed to be potential dangerous vehicles through the lane change. Lane change trajectory equation is first established according to the general law of steering wheel angle through lane changes. Based on the relative position, velocity and acceleration information of the dangerous vehicles and the lane change vehicle, motions of these surrounding dangerous vehicles are predicted. At the same time, a multi-objective optimization function is established based on the relative longitudinal safety boundary. The objectives are the minimum safety distance, the lane change time and the front wheel angle.

Downsizing gasoline direct injection engine with turbo boost technology is the main trend for gasoline engine. However, with engine downsizing and ever increasing of power output, a new abnormal phenomenon, known as pre-ignition or super knock, occurs in turbocharged engines. Pre-ignition will cause very high in-cylinder pressure and high oscillations. In some circumstances, one cycle of severe pre-ignition may damage the piston or spark plug, which has a severe influence on engine performance and service life. So pre-ignition has raised lots of attention in both industry and academic society. More and more studies reveal that the auto-ignition of lubricants is the potential source for pre-ignition. The auto-ignition characteristics of different lubricants are studied. This paper focuses on the ignition delay of different lubricants in Controllable Active Thermo-Atmosphere (CATA) combustion system.

Research studies have suggested that changes to the ignition system are required to generate a more robust flame kernel in order to secure the ignition process for the future advanced high efficiency spark-ignition (SI) engines. In a typical inductive ignition system, the spark discharge is initiated by a transient high-power electrical breakdown and sustained by a relatively low-power glow process. The electrical breakdown is characterized as a capacitive discharge process with a small quantity of energy coming mainly from the gap parasitic capacitor. Enhancement of the breakdown is a potential avenue effectively for extending the lean limit of SI engine. In this work, the effect of high-power capacitive spark discharge on the early flame kernel growth of premixed methane-air mixtures is investigated through electrical probing and optical diagnosis.

In this paper, a soft computing approach to a model-free vehicle stability control (VSC) algorithm is presented. The objective is to create a fuzzy inference system (FIS) that is robust enough to operate in a multitude of vehicle conditions (load, tire wear, alignment), and road conditions while at the same time providing optimal vehicle stability by detecting and minimizing loss of traction. In this approach, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is generated using previously collected data to train and optimize the performance of the fuzzy logic VSC algorithm. This paper outlines the FIS detection algorithm and its benefits over a model-based approach. The performance of the FIS-based VSC is evaluated via a co-simulation of MATLAB/Simulink and CarSim model of the vehicle under various road and load conditions. The results showed that the proposed algorithm is capable of accurately indicating unstable vehicle behavior for two different types of vehicles (SUV and Sedan).

This paper presents the application of a proposed fuzzy inference system as part of a stability control design scheme implemented with active steering actuator sets. The fuzzy inference system is used to detect the level of overseer/understeer at the high level and a speed-adaptive activation module determines whether an active front steering, active rear steering, or active 4 wheel steering is suited to improve vehicle handling stability. The resulting model-free system is capable of minimizing the amount of model calibration during the vehicle stability control development process as well as improving vehicle performance and stability over a wide range of vehicle and road conditions. A simulation study will be presented that evaluates the proposed scheme and compares the effectiveness of active front steer (AFS) and active rear steer (ARS) in enhancing the vehicle performance. Both time and frequency domain results are presented.

A new turbocharged 60° 2.7L 4V-V6 gasoline engine has been developed by Ford Motor Company for both pickup trucks and car applications. This engine was code named “Nano” due to its compact size; it features a 4-valves DOHC valvetrain, a CGI cylinder block, an Aluminum ladder, an integrated exhaust manifold and twin turbochargers. The goal of this engine is to deliver 120HP/L, ULEV70 emission, fuel efficiency improvements and leadership level NVH. This paper describes the upfront design and optimization process used for the NVH development of this engine. It showcases the use of analytical tools used to define the critical design features and discusses the NVH performance relative to competitive benchmarks.

The higher cylinder peak pressure and pressure rise rate of modern diesel and gasoline fueled engines tend to increase combustion noise while customers demand lower noise. The multiple degrees of freedom in engine control and calibration mean there is more scope to influence combustion noise but this must first be measured before it can be balanced with other attributes. An efficient means to realize this is to calculate combustion noise from the in-cylinder pressure measurements that are routinely acquired as part of the engine development process. This publication reviews the techniques required to ensure accurate and precise combustion noise measurements. First, the dynamic range must be maximized by using an analogue to digital converter with sufficient number of bits and selecting an appropriate range in the test equipment.

The effect of aerodynamically induced pre-swirl on the acoustic and performance characteristics of an automotive centrifugal compressor is studied experimentally on a steady-flow turbocharger facility. Accompanying flow separation, broadband noise is generated as the flow rate of the compressor is reduced and the incidence angle of the flow relative to the leading edge of the inducer blades increases. By incorporating an air jet upstream of the inducer, a tangential (swirl) component of velocity is added to the incoming flow, which improves the incidence angle particularly at low to mid-flow rates. Experimental data for a configuration with a swirl jet is then compared to a baseline with no swirl. The induced jet is shown to improve the surge line over the baseline configuration at all rotational speeds examined, while restricting the maximum flow rate. At high flow rates, the swirl jet increases the compressor inlet noise levels over a wide frequency range.

Drivelines used in modern pickup trucks commonly employ universal joints. This type of joint is responsible for second driveshaft order vibrations in the vehicle. Large displacements of the joint connecting the driveline and the rear axle have a detrimental effect on vehicle NVH. As leaf springs are critical energy absorbing elements that connect to the powertrain, they are used to restrain large axle windup angles. One of the most common types of leaf springs in use today is the multi-stage parabolic leaf spring. A simple SAE 3-link approximation is adequate for preliminary studies but it has been found to be inadequate to study axle windup. A vast body of literature exists on modeling leaf springs using nonlinear FEA and multibody simulations. However, these methods require significant amount of component level detail and measured data. As such, these techniques are not applicable for quick sensitivity studies at design conception stage.

Hands-free phone use is the most utilized use case for vehicles equipped with infotainment systems with external microphones that support connection to phones and implement speech recognition. Critically then, achieving hands-free phone call quality in a vehicle is problematic due to the extremely noisy nature of the vehicle environment. Noise generated by wind, mechanical and structural, tire to road, passengers, engine/exhaust, HVAC air pressure and flow are all significant contributors and sources of noise. Other factors influencing the quality of the phone call include microphone placement, cabin acoustics, seat position of the talker, noise reduction of the hands-free system, etc. This paper describes the work done to develop procedures and metrics to quantify the effects that influence the hands-free phone call quality.

This paper proposes an approach that characterizes a driver's driving behavior and style in real-time during car-following drives. It uses an online learning of the evolving Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy model combined with the Markov model. The inputs fed into the proposed algorithm are from the measured signals of on-board sensors equipped with current vehicles, including the relative distance sensors for Adaptive Cruise Control feature and the accelerometer for Electronic Stability Control feature. The approach is verified using data collected using a test vehicle from several car-following test trips. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been shown in the paper.

Automotive structural parts made out of Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) are often produced in a multistage forming process using progressive dies or transfer dies. During each forming stage the steel is subjected to work hardening, which affects the formability of the steel in the subsequent forming operation. Edge flanging and in-plane edge stretching operations are forming modes that are typically employed in the last stage of the multistage forming processes. In this study, the multistage forming process was simulated by pre-straining a DP980 steel in a biaxial strain path with various strain levels followed by edge flanging and in-plane edge stretching. The biaxial prestrains were obtained using the Marciniak stretch test and edge flanging and in-plane edge stretching were accomplished by the hole expansion test using a flat punch and a conical punch, respectively.