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As an important input parameter of intelligent vehicle active safety technology, road adhesion coefficient is of great significance in autonomous collision avoidance, emergency braking and collision avoidance, and variable adhesion road motion control. Traditional recognition methods based on vehicle dynamics require large data volume and low solution accuracy. This paper proposes an adhesion coefficient recognition method based on Elman neural network and Kalman filter. By establishing a seven-degree-of-freedom vehicle dynamics model, dynamic parameters such as yaw angular velocity, longitudinal velocity, lateral velocity, and angular velocity of each wheel, which are easy to measure and strongly related to the road adhesion coefficient, are analyzed as the input of the neural network model.

Road traffic accidents resulting from alcohol-impaired driving are increasing globally despite several measures, currently in place, to curb the trend. For this reason, recent research aims at integrating alcohol early-detection systems and driving simulator experiments to identify intoxicated drivers. However, driving simulator experiments on drunk driving have focused mostly on male participants than female drivers whose characteristics have scarcely been explored. Hence in this paper, vehicle dynamic control inputs on steering, braking, and acceleration performance of 75 licensed female drivers with an upshot of alcohol at four different blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels (0%, 0.03%, 0.05%, and 0.08%) were investigated. The participants completed simulated driving in a fixed-based simulator experiment coupled with real-time ecological scenarios to extract discrete responses.

The ride performance and stability of the vehicle will decrease while the vehicle passing a deceleration bump with relatively high speed. If the speed is too low, the road efficiency and ride comfort will be affected. It is essential to identify the proper speed taking into account all the factors. In this paper, the dynamic model of the vehicle passing through the deceleration bump is established. Three kinds of indicators vibration weighted acceleration RMS, maximum vertical vibration acceleration and wheel load impact coefficient, are used to comprehensively evaluate the ride comfort and safety. The highway model, vehicle model, and common trapezoidal cross-sections bump models are set up in Carsim. Parameters such as vertical acceleration and tire force at different vehicle speeds are obtained. Then use the spline interpolation method to fit the data, and comprehensively consider the three indicators to get the best speed.

When driving in mountainous areas, vehicles often encounter downhill conditions. To ensure safe driving, it is necessary to control the speed of vehicles. For internal combustion engine vehicles, auxiliary brake such as engine brake can be used to alleviate the thermal load caused by the continuous braking of the friction brake. For battery electric vehicles (BEVs), regenerative braking can be used as auxiliary braking to improve brake safety. And through regenerative braking, energy can be partly converted into electrical energy and stored in accumulators (such as power batteries and supercapacitors), thus extending the mileage. However, the driver's line of sight in the mountains is limited, resulting in a certain degree of blindness in driving, so it is impossible to fully guarantee the safety and energy saving of downhill driving.

In summer, the relatively low temperature water condenses in the evaporator when the vehicle air-conditioning (AC) is running. At present, the vehicle AC condensate water without well utilization is directly wasted. The condenser’s thermal transfer performance has a great influence on the AC performance, and to increase the convective heat transfer coefficient (CHTC) is the key to its design. In this paper, a method of using atomized condensate water (CW) to enhance the condenser’s thermal transfer performance is proposed, which can make the most of the CW's cold energy. It achieves the reuse of CW and increases the condenser’s CHTC. First, the CW flow calculation model in the evaporator and the calculation model of the condenser enhanced thermal transfer using atomized CW are both set up. The influence of the evaporation degree of atomized CW particles in the air on the enhancement effect is comprehensively considered.

The electric vehicle motor is developing toward high power density, at the same time brings serious temperature rise problem, which affect the driving motor performance, efficiency, and useful life. Liquid cooling is usually used to solve the problem, but its energy consumption is large and the reliability is poor. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a heat dissipation method to improve the reliability and energy efficiency of the driving motor heat dissipation system. The method uses heat pipes heat transfer, and the heat pipes cold end are cooled by vehicle facing the wind. By establishing the motor temperature rise model, heat transfer model and vehicle dynamics model, this paper analyzes the maximum temperature region and reliability of the driving motor heat dissipation system, calculates and analyzes the efficiency of the driving motor under different driving conditions.

It’s not easy to start the engine in winter, especially in frigid highlands, because the low temperature increases the fuel’s viscosity, decreasing the lubricating oil flow ability and the storage performance of battery. Current electrical heating method can improve the engine starting performance in low temperature condition, but this method adds an external power to the engine, leading to the engine cannot maintain an efficient energy utilization. A warming device using the solar energy is designed to conserve the energy during the daytime, and directly warm up the engine at the time when the engine turns off for a long time, especially during the night. A solar collector installed on the top of the vehicle is used to convert the solar energy to the thermal energy, which is then transferred to the heat accumulator that contain the phase-change medium which can increase the heat storage performance.

While the car ownership increasing all over the world, the unutilized thermal energy in automobile exhaust system is gradually being realized and valued by researchers around the world for better driving energy efficiency. For the unexpected urban traffic, the frequent start and stop processes as well as the acceleration and deceleration lead to the temperature fluctuation of the exhaust gas, which means the unstable hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module generator (TEG). By arranging the heat conduction oil circulation at the hot end, the hot-end temperature’s fluctuation of the TEG can be effectively reduced, at the expense of larger system size and additional energy supply for the circulation. This research improves the TEG hot-end temperature stability by installing solid heat capacity material(SHCM) to the area between the outer wall of the exhaust pipe and the TEG, which has the merits of simple structure, none energy consumption and light weight.

The mountainous roads are rugged and complex, so that the driver can not make accurate judgments on dangerous road conditions. In addition, most heavy vehicles have characteristics of large weight and high center of gravity. The two factors above have caused most of the car accidents in mountain areas. A research shows that 90% of car accidents can be avoided if drivers can respond within 2-3 seconds before the accidents happen. This paper proposes a speed warning scheme for heavy-duty vehicle over the horizon in mountainous area, which can give the drivers enough time to respond to the danger. In the early warning aspect, this system combines the front road information, the vehicle characteristics and real-time information obtained from the vehicle, calculates and forecasts the danger that may happen over the horizon ahead of time, and prompts the driver to control the vehicle speed.

Typical vehicle speed deceleration occurs at the freeway exit due to the driving direction change. Well conducting the driver to control the velocity could enhance the vehicle maneuverability and give drivers more response time when running into potential dangerous conditions. The freeway exit speed limit sign (ESLS) is an effect way to remind the driver to slow down the vehicle. The ESLS visibility is significant to guarantee the driving safety. This research focuses on the color variable ESLS system, which is placed at the same location with the traditional speed limit sign. With this system, the driver could receive the updated speed limit recommendation in advance and without distraction produced by eyes contract change over the dashboard and the front sight. First, the mathematical model of the drivetrain and the engine brake is built for typical motor vehicles. The vehicle braking characteristics with various initial speeds in the deceleration area are studied.

The drivers' hysteretic perception to surrounding environment will affect vehicular fuel economy, especially for the heavy-duty vehicles driving under complex conditions and long distance in mountainous areas. Unreasonable acceleration or deceleration on the slope will increase the fuel consumption. Improving the performance of the engine and the transmission system has limited energy saving potential, and most fuel-efficient driving assistant systems don't consider the road conditions. The main purpose of this research is to introduce an economic driving scheme with consideration of the prestored slope information in which the vehicle speed in mountainous slopes is reasonably planned to guide the driver's behavior for reduction of the fuel consumption. Economic driving optimization algorithm with low space dimension and fast computation speed is established to plan accurate and real-time economic driving scheme.

Vehicle speed is an important factor to driving safety, which is directly related to the stability and braking performance of the vehicle. Besides, the precise measurement of the vehicle speed is the basis of some vehicle active safety systems. Even in the future intelligent transportation, high quality speed information will also play an important role. The commonly used vehicle speed measurement techniques are based on the wheel speed sensors, which are not accurate, especially when the wheels’ slip rate is not equal to zero. Focusing on these issues, image matching technology has been used to measure the vehicle speed in this paper. The image information of the road in the front of the vehicle is collected, and the pixel displacement of the vehicle is calculated by the matching system, thus accurately vehicle speed can be obtained. Compared with conventional speed measure technology, it has the advantages of wide measuring range, and high accuracy.

The heavy-duty vehicles have large transportation capacity. Gross mass and center of gravity position of the heavy-duty vehicles vary with the cargo mass and the driving condition, which affect driving safety and handling stability. Gross mass and center of gravity position of the vehicles are usually measured on fixed test platform, and the vehicles are stationary or pass the platform slowly in the measurement process. Most dynamic weighing system could not measure the center of gravity position of the vehicles. On-board mass and center of gravity of motor vehicles measurement system mainly based on the tire pressure information could measure gross mass and center of gravity position accurately in the driving process. The measurement errors of the sensors are effectively decreased by filtering collected sensor data. The relationship between the tire pressure and the tire load is built when the vehicle is stationary.

Downhill mountain roads are the accident prone sections because of their complexity and variety. Drivers rely more on driving experience and it is very easy to cause traffic accidents due to the negligence or the judgment failure. Traditional active safety systems, such as ABS, having subjecting to the driver's visual feedback, can’t fully guarantee the downhill driving safety in complex terrain environments. To enhance the safety of vehicles in the downhill, this study combines the characteristics of vehicle dynamics and the geographic information. Thus, through which the drivers could obtain the safety speed specified for his/her vehicle in the given downhill terrains and operate in advance to reduce traffic accidents due to driver's judgment failure and avoid the brake overheating and enhance the safety of vehicles in the downhill.

In this research, the Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric material is used in the exhaust temperature difference power-generating system, and the material's heat transfer characteristic and power-generating characteristic were analyzed. Firstly, steady heat transfer model from vehicle exhaust to cooling water was established. Then the impact of Sn/Si ratio to the thermoelectric characteristic parameter was analyzed. Finally, considering the influence of varying thermal conductivity to the heat transfer process along the material's heat transfer direction, when the cold end temperature of thermoelectric materials was controlled by cooling water respectively boiling at 343K and 373K, the thermoelectric conversion efficiency and power output of Mg2Si1-xSnx thermoelectric materials with different x value were evaluated based on simulation calculation.

Vehicle hydraulic retarders are applied in heavy-duty trucks and buses as an auxiliary braking device. In traditional cooling systems of hydraulic retarders, the working fluid is introduced into the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the cooling liquid in circulation, whose heat is then dissipated by the engine cooling system. This prevents the waste heat of the working fluid from being used effectively. In hydraulic retarder cooling system based on the Organic Rankine Cycle, the organic working fluid first transfers heat with the hydraulic retarder working fluid in Rankine cycle, and then outputs power through expansion machine. It can both reduce heat load of the engine cooling system, and enhance thermal stability of the hydraulic retarder while recovering and utilizing braking energy. First of all, according to the target vehicle model, hydraulic retarder cooling system model based on Rankine cycle is established.

With the help of organic working medium absorbing the solar energy for steam electric power generation, green energy can be provided to automotive accessories so as to improve the vehicle energy efficiency. In the hot summer, the exhausted heat resulting from cars’ directly exposing to the sun can be used to cool and ventilate the passenger compartment. Considering the space occupied by the system in the combination of both practical features for solar heat source--low power and poor stability-- a compact evaporation structure was designed to enhance the solar utilization efficiency. In the research, the heat source of power and temperature variation range was determined by the available solar roof with photo-thermal conversion model. Then started from the ratio of exhausted heat utilization corresponding to evaporator’s characteristic parameter, the performance analysis was made in the different working conditions.

Vehicle exhaust waste-heat recovery with thermoelectric power generators can improve energy efficiency, as well as vehicle fuel economy. In the conventional structure, the hot-end of thermoelectric module is directly connected with the outer wall of the exhaust pipe, while the cold-end is connected with the water pipe’s outer wall of the vehicle engine cooling cycle. However, the variety of vehicle engine operating conditions leads to the instability of the hot-end temperature, which will reduce the generating efficiency of the thermoelectric modules and also shorten its service life. This research is on the basis of constructing a heat transfer oil circulation, and to study the action principles and implementation methods of it.

Eddy current retarder (ECR) shares a large market of auxiliary brakes in China, but shortcomings of the short continuous braking time and the high additional energy consumption are also obvious. The propose of combined braking partakes the braking torque of ECR. However, the existed serial-parallel braking strategy could hardly balance well the relationship between the braking stability and the energy recovery efficiency. This research puts forward an energy management strategy of combined braking system which aims to maximize energy recovery while ensure the brake stability. The motor speed, the braking request and the state of charge (SoC) of the storage module are analyzed synthetically to calculate the reasonable braking torque distribution proportion. And the recovered energy is priority for using in the braking unit to reduce the additional energy consumption in this strategy.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device used in heavy duty vehicle. It generates braking forceby liquid damping effect and makes inertial energy into thermal energy of the transmission medium when the vehicleis in thedownhill. The traditional thermal management system of the hydraulic retarder dissipates the heat of transmission medium out of the vehicle directly, which causes a big waste of energy, meanwhilethe thermal management system components need to consume engine power. This study applies organic Rankine cycle (ORC)cooling system to meet the high power cooling requirements of the hydraulic retarder and recover waste heat energy from the transmission medium at the same time and then supply energy to the thermal management system, which could save the parasitic power of the engine and improve the comprehensive energy utilization ratio of the vehicle.