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A car with a good aerodynamic design works efficiently. The sidepod is one such aerodynamic device that aids in increasing the cooling performance of a radiator. The objective of this article is to validate the design of the sidepod, which provides the maximum possible mass flow rate of air, which in turn increases the efficiency of the radiator. Validation was performed by comparing the values of mass flow rate obtained by analytical calculations, simulations, and experimentation. Firstly, analytical calculations were performed on the sidepod using the principles of fluid dynamics. Six models of the sidepod were designed with varying dimensions with undertray and without undertray. Simulations were performed on the models to find the design of the sidepods that provide results closest to the manually obtained values. An attempt was made to describe the setup required for simulating these sidepods along with the radiator, fan, and shroud.

In the pioneering sectors of design and development, industries are looking for computer integrated solutions for product development; especially in aerospace industries where the demands for reduction in the development cycles and prototyping iterations. Generative design and topology optimization are the recent tools for achieving the desired design solutions. Topology optimization aims to find an ideal structural configuration within the given design domain with various constraints, objectives, and boundary conditions. In this study, topology optimization is used as a design tool in the development phase of a component. An efficient methodology is developed based on topology optimization for regeneration of a tertiary components. The topology optimization approach used in this research is divided into three main stages: modelling, optimization and regeneration.

The FSAE is a world-renowned competition, in which students from across the globe compete against each other. The chassis is the main framework of the car, which is inherently responsible for accommodating all the components. The chassis is broadly classified into two types—monocoque and spaceframe. The FSAE chassis is of spaceframe type. The chassis also provides structural rigidity to the body of the car. It was observed through literature study that very minimal amount of research has been done on analyzing and validating the chassis by applying the different meshing techniques, namely 1D, 2D, and 3D. The mesh quality is very essential to obtain precise results and hence, effective methods for creating the mesh have been dealt with in this article. This study is on new investigations on different meshing techniques that can be implemented on an FSAE chassis.

The increasing demand for light weighting products due to introduction of various standards and norms for controlling CO2 emissions and to meet the customer requirement of low cost with higher strength and rigidity of product in automotive industry, sheet metal manufacturing technique is adopted for automotive steering yoke for light commercial vehicle. Currently forged yokes are used for higher strength requirement, while sheet metal yokes are being used for small tonnage vehicle. The attempt has been made to improve overall strength and rigidity of the yoke produced by sheet metal operation using SAPH 440 steel with 6.5mm thickness for light commercial vehicle segments. The major challenge identified for this development was developing such a high strength and thickness material with consistency of dimension during forming process and meeting the torsional strength requirement of 500 Nm.

Electronic throttle body (ETB) is commonly employed in an intake manifold of a spark ignition engine to vary the airflow quantity by adjusting the throttle valve in it. The actual position of the throttle valve is measured by means of a dual throttle position sensor (TPS) and the signal is feedback into the control unit for accomplishing the closed loop control in order handle the nonlinearities due to friction, limp-home position, aging, parameter variations. This work aims presents a neural networks based novel virtual sensor for the estimation of throttle valve position in the electronic throttle body. Proposed neural network model estimates the actual throttle position using three inputs such as reference throttle angle, angular error and the motor current. In the present work, the dynamic model of the electronic throttle body is used to calculate the current consumed by the motor for corresponding throttle valve movement.

Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are becoming an essential part of the modern commercial automobile industry. Vehicle handling and stability are determined by the yaw rate and body slip of the vehicle. This paper is a comparative study of a nonlinear vehicle stability control algorithms for steering control based on two different controllers i.e. fuzzy logic based controller and PID controller. A full vehicle 14DOF model was made in Simulink to simulate an actual vehicle. The control algorithms are based on a two-track 7-DOF model with a non-linear tire model based on Pacejka “Magic tire formula”, which was used to establish the desired response of a full vehicle 14DOF model. It was found that the fuzzy logic-based control algorithm demonstrated an overall superior performance characteristic than a PID based control algorithm; this includes a significant decrease in time lag and overshoot.

The Indian automotive industry has taken a big leap towards stringent Bharat Stage VI (BS VI) emission standards by year 2020. A digital driven design and development focusing on innovative and commercially viable technologies for combustion and exhaust after-treatment system is the need of the time. One-dimensional (1D) simulation serves as a best alternative to its counterparts in terms of obtaining faster and accurate results, which makes it an ideal tool for carrying out optimization studies at system level. In this work, 1D chemical kinetics modelling and analysis of exhaust after-treatment system (EAT) for a heavy-duty diesel has been performed using GT-Power. Initially, a single site 1D model for a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) has been developed and then, a two-site, 1D model for a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst was also developed based on reactor data.

A Formula student team aims to develop and improve their designs every year, as far as the powertrain aspect is considered performance output and enhancement is the primary aim, and for engine to perform better, the health of the engine is the most important parameter; hence the lubrication system of the vehicles powertrain should be improved to get the most out of the engine. The primary challenge for the development of a new lubrication system was the inability to replicate the performance given by stock wet sump with the self-designed custom dry sump. However, the advantages can outnumber the cons of implementing a custom dry sump lubrication system. The work brought together in this paper highlights the meticulous design procedure for implementing a custom made dry sump system onto a 4-cylinder in-line Honda CBR600RR engine.

At present, the emissions from an internal combustion engine exhaust is reduced by exhaust after treatment devices. However, after treatment devices like SCR which is used to control NOx, results in additional weight, high costs and rejects toxic gases like ammonia etc. To overcome this problem, a new combustion technique should be developed to improve the primary combustion processes inside the combustion chamber itself to reduce these exhaust gas emissions. This work presents the results of such a technique that is applicable to direct injection, Diesel engines. The technique is based on the porous medium combustion (PMC) technology, which is developed for steady state household and industrial combustion processes. Based on the adiabatic combustion in porous medium (PM), a porous medium in engine piston as a concept is proposed here to achieve improved combustion efficiency and low emissions. Using a commercial code CONVERGE the entire cycle is simulated and presented here.

A study of an aerofoil structure used for automotive body design is being conducted and an experiment has been performed to determine the lift and drag forces produced by it by varying its Angle of Attack. The NACA0018 and NACA0015 aerofoil with a chord length of 16 cm were used for this study. Then an analysis was done with the help of (CFD) computational fluid dynamics. The results obtained by CFD analysis where compared by the experimental results which was performed on wind tunnel using NACA0018 aerofoil. The results are then presented graphically, showing pressure and velocity distributions lift and drag coefficients for the different cases which will be useful for design of automotive body structures.

The present world persists with a twin crisis of energy consumption and the environmental degradation. Finding a compromise between them provides a breakthrough in the research in energy containments of the engine attachments. Oil pump has role of providing the transmission of oil to other engine parts and acts as the coolant for the moving parts. Conventional oil pump with pressure relief valve is its loss lot of energy in oil re-circulation due to the discharge effect. On contrary, the variable displacement oil pump has an effect on reduction of oil pressure using eccentric ring without having any compromise with the energy consumption. This paper proposes model and experimental methodology of a variable displacement Gerotor oil pump for lubricating the internal combustion engine. This particular unit is performed extremely in terms of rotational speed, delivery pressure and displacement variation.

This paper describes the development of a varying stiffness suspension system to have better control over handling, comfort and structural fatigue of automobiles. Earlier approaches resulted in cumbersome designs and resulted in higher lateral forces on coil springs and structural fatigue. In this work, an initiative has been taken considering all these factors and optimizing the design at every stage of development to achieve lightweight and economical suspension system to meet the objectives. The variable stiffness is achieved through the relative travel of spring with respect to the wheel travel for different configurations. For this purpose, a stepper motor drive is employed to move the hinge point in the angular arch. The developed design is also examined through mathematical modeling and the MBD simulations.

Agriculture is a backbone of country’s economy. To increase the crop production efficiency weeds are to be removed. The present weeding machines are different in dimension which may not be suited to small and medium field farmers, due cost effectiveness and dimensions. This work presents the development of sugarcane weed remover (SWR) and its performance investigation to improve the weed removal rate. The SWR is an application specific machine, it consists of single cylinder air cooled gasoline engine, blade assembly and transmission system. In order to improve SWR efficiency different blade profiles are theoretically analysed. The optimised blade profile is employed in the weed remover which offers fuel consumption of 0.11 g/(KW.h). The SWR on-field experience confirmed that the field capacity and efficiency in weeding is 0.0025 ha/hr and 60% respectively.

A model for Hybrid electric vehicle power train with parallel hybrid braking system has been constructed. The hybrid vehicle utilized is based on integrated motor assist power train developed by Honda co utilized in Honda Insight car. The model is implemented using empirical formulation and power control schemes. A power control strategy based on throttle position (% throttle) and brake pedal position (% braking) is used. It incorporates the parallel hybrid braking system for the hybrid electric vehicle. The model allows for real time evaluation of wide range of parameters in vehicle operation as HEV without parallel hybrid braking system (PHBS) and with PHBS. Due to regenerative braking the structure design and control of braking system for HEV is different from conventional vehicle. The PHBS is the good option to provide safety of the vehicle and simultaneously recover reasonable amount of braking energy.

In the present study, an aluminium based nanocomposite, reinforced with 2 wt. % aluminium oxide (Al2O3) is developed through stir casting method. These hard ceramic particles also influence the material removal rate (MRR), electrode wear rate (EWR) and surface finish (Ra) in an electro-discharge machining (EDM) process. In this work, EDM of Al 7075/2 wt. % Al2O3 nanocomposite is carried out using copper and brass electrodes using Taguchi L18 array. The percentage contribution of each process parameter on the response variables was determined using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multi-response signal to noise ratio (MRSN) and the optimum combination levels for the input parameters was obtained using Taguchi’s parametric design. MRR and surface roughness are substantially improved when machining is performed at optimized conditions.

Though high thermal conductivity polymer composites are prepared based on the thermal requirements, the effectiveness and overall heat transfer performance of the radiators have to be addressed comprehensively to validate the concerned efforts taken to prepare the high thermal conductivity polymer composites. In this article, theoretical analysis on the thermal performance of the cross flow type heat exchanger under convection is performed only by concentrating on the term thermal conductivity of the material. Micro channel based geometry is extracted from the given heat exchanger problem to reduce the complexities of simulation. The term cooling system performance index (CSPI) is used to achieve the expected targets in the present investigation. For shorter fins, the effect of thermal conductivity on the cooling system performance index under lower Reynolds number is insignificant.

In Formula Student, the vehicle working parameters are quite disparate from that of a commercially designed vehicle. The inability of teams to incorporate the atypical running conditions in their design causes multiple unforeseen issues. One such condition where the teams fail to improvise upon is the cooling system. Due to the high performance requirement of the competition, multiple teams participating face recurring heating problems. Maximum efficiency from a combustion vehicle can only be achieved when the cooling system is designed to handle the increasing power demand. This paper brings forth a detailed study on the intricate design of the cooling system. The problem has been approached using both theoretical and simulation models. Firstly, NTU-ℇ method was used to calculate the overall heat transfer coefficient and the temperature drop through the radiator core.

Direct Metal Deposition (DMD) is a rapid prototyping technique used to fabricate and repair metallic prototypes. It can be used in the production of complex geometries and unique parts. In functional automotive applications wear characteristics hold key importance. In the present study, an analysis on the influence of various parameters (coating thickness, load and temperature) on the wear characteristics of Direct Metal Deposited (DMD) Inconel 625 coating has been carried out using a Design of Experiments (DOE). ANOVA calculations were performed to find out which of these parameters showed significant influence on the wear properties. It was found that load was the most significant parameter influencing the wear characteristics .Similarly load was found to be most influencing parameter for co efficient of friction. The trend was found to follow when verified at 30 second, 3 minutes, 60 minutes and 120 minutes.

The main objective of the study is to design and analyze casing and supports of a transmission system for an electric vehicle. The system comprises of motors as the power source, constant mesh gear box coupled with limited slip differential as the power transmitting source. The space occupied by the transmission system is a foremost constraint in designing the system. The wear and tear in the system is caused by the gear meshing process and transmission error which lead to failure of the transmission system. This internal excitation also produces a dynamic mesh force, which is transmitted to the casing and mounts through shafts and bearings. In order to overcome such issues in a transmission system, a gear box casing, differential mounts and motor mounts have been designed by the use of CAD-modeling software “SOLIDWORKS”. The designs were imported to FEA software “ANSYS” for carrying out static structural analysis.

The infliction of rigorous emission norms across the world has made the automobile industry to focus and dwell upon researches to reduce the emissions from internal combustion engines, namely diesel engines. Variation in fuel injection timing has better influence on reduction of engine exhaust emissions. This papers deals with the variation of fuel injection timing along with fuel injection pressure numerically on a 4 stroke, single cylinder, and direct injection diesel engine running at full load condition using CONVERGE CFD tool. As the piston and bowl geometry considered in this work is symmetric, only 60 degree sector of the piston cylinder assembly is considered for numerical simulation over complete 360 degree model.