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Passenger vehicles are used as one of the frequently used and versatile mode of transport. Commercial buses cater to short to long distance travel for city as well as highway applications. Thus, passenger ride comfort becomes paramount for the salability of the vehicle. Generally, it is observed that the rear seat experiences the worst ride comfort characteristics due to rear overhang and pitching characteristics of buses. Therefore the objective of this project is to improve the rear seat vibrations of passenger bus by tuning damper characteristics. Shock absorbers, being a low cost and easily interchangeable component is tuned first before optimizing other suspension parameters. The methodology is as follows: first, a 4 degree of freedom mathematical model is created on MATLAB Simulink R2015a environment. Time domain data is obtained by road load data analysis and used as an input for the mathematical model.

Wheel end bearing is one of the critical components of the vehicle as it shares the loads & support wheel rotation simultaneously. In wheel end, taper roller bearings are used. It helps to withstand both vertical & lateral loads imparted during cornering. Taper roller bearings are used in pair of two so that overall impact of lateral forces during straight running would be nullified. In wheel end bearing systems bearings are kept at distance w.r.t to each other based on position of load line, sharing the total portion of load accordingly. Life of bearings is dependent on whether the bearings are operating in play or preload. This paper focuses on various aspects of bearings life & how it varies with respect to Play & Preload. Also a methodology is developed to measure the overall preload of bearing system. In second stage a methodology is developed which gives an indirect method to measure the bearing preload in terms of wheel end torque to rotate.

In the modern era of commercial vehicle industry, passenger and driver comfort is one of the major parameters that improves vehicle running time which leads to fleet owner’s profitability. Air conditioning system is one such system whose primary function is to provide the required cooling inside the cabin in hot weather conditions. An Air-conditioned truck cabin creates a comfortable environment for the driver which increases his efficiency and reduces fatigue. An AC compressor consumes power directly from the engine affecting fuel economy and vehicle performance. With ever increasing demand for energy efficient systems and thermal comfort in automobiles, AC systems should be able to deliver the required cooling performance with minimum power consumption. Therefore, reducing AC power consumption in vehicles is one of the key challenges faced by climate control engineers.

The engine coolant temperature influences fuel consumption, power, emissions and mechanical load on the components. The optimization of these variables does not permit a fixed temperature value if there are different speed and load states. The optimization requires a temperature range that corresponds to each operating point. A conventional wax thermostat has a wide temperature control range. The start to open and full open temperature values depend on the mechanical properties of the spring and wax material. Hence, there is no control on the coolant temperature band in real time. This paper deals with the performance analysis & optimization of engine cooling system by using electronically controlled coolant thermostat for improving engine thermal efficiency. To integrate this technology with an existing engine, some design modifications have been made in the thermostat housing mounted on the engine cylinder head and radiator inlet hosepipe.

Leaf spring is a vital suspension component, such that the failure of leaf spring could cause fatal accidents. Due to frequent failures of leaf springs on vehicles, a method is developed to perform the numerical analysis using explicit solver which provides insightful analysis of leaf springs to prevent the occurrence of failure during engineering design. Since fatigue life assessment of leaf springs is a significant aspect during the design stage and due to the limitation of non-compatibility of output file of explicit solver for fatigue analysis, various studies are conducted and implicit solver is considered to perform FEA simulation of leaf spring. The present study delineates comparison of non-linear analysis of semi-elliptical leaf spring using explicit solver with that of implicit solver. Analysis using implicit solver gives us an advantage to export the model in fatigue life estimation solver which is not possible using explicit solver.

In the current landscape of commercial vehicle industry, fuel economy is one of the major parameter for fleet owner’s profitability as well as greenhouse gasses emission. Less fuel efficiency results in more fuel consumption; use of conventional fuel in engines also makes environment polluted. The rapid growth in fuel prices has led to the demand for technologies that can improve the fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Phase change material (PCMs) for Thermal energy storage system (TES) is one of the specific technologies that not only can conserve energy to a large extent but also can reduce emission as well as the dependency on convention fuel. There is a great variety of PCMs that can be used for the extensive range of temperatures, making them attractive in a number of applications in automobiles.

In an automobile, main function of the steering system is to allow the driver to guide the vehicle on a desired course. Steering system consists of various components & linkages. Using these linkages, the torque from steering wheel is transferred to tyre which results in turning of the vehicle. Over the life of vehicle, these steering components are subjected to various loading conditions. As steering components are safety critical parts in the vehicle, therefore they should not fail while running because it will cause vehicle breakdown. In commercial vehicle segment, vehicle breakdown means delay in freight delivery which results in huge loss to costumer. Therefore, while designing steering components one should consider all the possible loadings condition those are possible. But, it can’t be done through theoretical calculation. Therefore, physical tests have to be carried out to validate design of steering system, which is very costly & time-consuming process.

The job of a suspension system is to maximize the friction between the tires and the road surface, to provide steering stability with good handling and to act as a cushioning device ensuring the comfort of the driver & passengers. The suspension also protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear. Almost all heavy duty vehicles use inverted type suspension system which is also called as bogie type suspension system. The design of this type of suspension is a complex and difficult science which has evolved over many years. It was recognized very early in the development of suspensions that the interface between vehicle body and wheel needed some sort of cushioning system to reduce the vibration felt as the vehicle moved along. This was already part of road coach design and took the form of leaf (laminated) steel springs mounted on the axles, upon which the vehicle body rested.

At the time of invention of road coaches, the vehicle consisted only of an axle with wheels and a body attached. Smooth roads were built for a better ride comfort however they were not consistent. The road coaches were too bumpy and uncomfortable for the passenger along with the driver who was not able to control the vehicle. That's why the engineers had to shift their attention to the suspension system for a better ride comfort and handling. The technology has advanced with time so as the suspension system. Rubber ended type leaf spring is one of the suspension system types available in the industry. The main function of a suspension in order of importance is as below: 1 Acts as a cushioning device ensuring the comfort of the driver and passengers; 2 Maximizes the contact between the tires and the road surface to provide steering stability with good handling; 3 Protects the vehicle itself and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear.

BSIV implementation for commercial vehicle in pans India effectively from April 2017. It’s very challenging job for performance and emission engineer to meet engine performance & fuel economy with stringent emission norms for high power and torque density HD diesel engine. In Altitude, lack of air availability & combustion energy passes by mechanical waste gate, lead to lower boost at partial load in waste gate region; which in turn leads to poor engine performance & fuel efficiency and higher turbo speed. To control the turbocharger design speed limit various methodologies adopted like engine derating or optimizing the combustion parameters leads to poor vehicle performance. Combustion parameter optimsation is having limited scope for turbocharger speed control.

With the increase in the sensitivity of power steering system in the competitive environment, it becomes essential to provide a trouble free steering system to the customer. Usually major concerns faced in the performance of steering system are related to noise like vane pump whining noise and steering gearbox erratic rubbing noise. Even though selected steering pump and reservoir are quite compatible to the steering gearbox. With the series of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and field tests, it is found that the cavitation phenomena in steering oil routing lines is responsible for the steering turning noise. In this paper, a developed systematic approach for problem detection to implementation of design solution is discussed.

The job of a suspension system is to maximize the friction between the tires and the road surface, to provide steering stability with good handling and to act as a cushioning device to ensure the comfort of the driver and passengers. The suspension system also protects the vehicle and any cargo or luggage from damage and wear. Commonly the strength of these suspension systems is evaluated by endurance trials on field or Rig testing which are time consuming and costly. On the other hand, virtual testing methods for strength and stiffness evaluation provide useful information early in the design cycle and save significant time and cost. However, the virtual method also needs validation, which can be achieved by physical co-relations (via rig tests). A study has been done to predict the behavior of Leaf Spring Suspensions entirely through the FEA (Finite Element Analysis) route and correlating those results with physical test.

Selective Catalytic Reduction has established itself to significantly reduce NOx emissions from diesel engines. Typically, in this technology, aqueous urea solution is injected into hot exhaust stream which chemically decomposes to form ammonia and then reacts with NOx to form safe byproducts as H2O and N2 over the catalyst surface. However, incomplete thermal decomposition of urea not only reduces the NOx conversion efficiency and increases the ammonia slip, but also leads to the formation of solid crystals that adversely affect the performance of the system by increasing the back pressure and lowering the overall fuel economy. The present study discusses about the main reasons that lead to crystal formation in a vanadium based SCR system on a six cylinder 5.6l diesel engine and also design considerations of decomposition tube that affect the formation of crystals and ways to mitigate them.

Nowadays technology is changing day by day and so as the expectation of the customers. Customers relate their vehicle and their reputation. Smoke coming out of vehicle affects badly on the reputation of the customer that is why today’s customer wants smoke free vehicle during transient condition. Low Air Fuel Ratio leads to smoke due to rich combustion mixture. Smoke could be generated due to turbo leg, sudden acceleration, gear changing, cold condition, altitude etc. During sudden acceleration, turbo leg leads to rich mixture which is favourable condition for smoke generation. It is difficult to reduce turbo leg in waste gate type turbocharger while maintaining EGR requirement in EGR based Engine. Smoke can be optimized by controlling fuelling in sudden acceleration or in transient condition. However it might adversely affect on vehicle pick up and could improve fuel economy.

Market driven competition in global trade and urgency for controlling the atmospheric air pollution are the twin forces, which have urged Indian automobile industries to catch up with the international emission norms. Improvement in the fuel efficiency of the vehicles is one way to bind to these stringent norms. It is experimentally proven that almost 40% of the available useful engine power is being consumed to overcome the drag resistance and around 45% to overcome the tire rolling resistance of the vehicle. This as evidence provides a huge scope to investigate the influence of aerodynamic drag and rolling resistances on the fuel consumption of a commercial vehicle. The present work is a numerical study on the influence of aerodynamic drag resistance on the fuel consumption of a commercial passenger bus. The commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool FLUENT™ is used as a virtual analysis tool to estimate the drag coefficient of the bus.

The need to develop products faster and to have designs which are first time right have put enormous pressure on the product development timelines, thus making computer aided optimization one of the most important tool in achieving these targets. In this paper, a design of experiments (DOE) study is used, to gain an insight as to, how changes to different parameters of front suspension and steering of a passenger bus affect its kinematic properties and thus to obtain an optimized design in terms of handling parameters such as bump steer, percent ackermann error and lock to lock rotation angle of steering wheel. The conventional hit and trial method is time consuming and monotonous and still is an approximate method, whereas in design of experiments (DOE), a model is repeatedly run through simulations in a single setup, for various combinations of parameter settings.