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Battery electric vehicles are quickly gaining momentum to improve vehicle fuel efficiency and emission reduction. However, they must be designed to provide adequate range on a single charge combined with good acceleration performance, top speed, gradeability, and fast charging times. The paper presents a model for sizing the power train of an electric vehicle, including the power electronic converter, electric motor, and battery pack. A major assumption is that an optimal wheel slip rate can be achieved by modern vehicles using slip control systems. MATLAB/Simulink was used to model the vehicle powertrain. Simulations were conducted based on different speed and acceleration profiles. The purpose of the study focused on the motor and power electronics sizing requirements to achieve optimal range and performance.

The focus on driver and occupant safety as well as comfort is increasing rapidly while designing commercial vehicles in India. Improvements in the road network have enhanced road transport for commercial vehicles. Apart from the cost of operation and fuel economy, the commercial vehicles must deliver goods within stipulated time. These factors resulted in higher speed of operation for commercial vehicles. The design should not compromise the safety of the vehicle at these higher speeds of operation. The vehicle should obey the driver’s intended direction at all speeds and the response of the vehicle to driver input must be predictable without much larger surprises which can lead to accidents. The commercial vehicles are designed with rigid axle and RCB type steering system. This suspension and steering design combination introduce steering errors when vehicle travel over bump, braked and while cornering.

Research institutes and companies are currently working on 3D numerical icing tools for the prediction of ice shapes on an international level. Due to the highly complex flow situation, the prediction of ice shapes on three-dimensional surfaces represents a challenge. An essential component for the development and subsequent validation of 3D ice accretion codes are detailed experimental data from ice shapes accreted on relevant geometries, like wings of a passenger aircraft for example. As part of the Republic of Austria funded research project JOICE, a mockup of a wingtip, based on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration common research model CRM65 was designed and manufactured. For further detailed investigation of electro-thermal de-icing systems, various heaters and thermocouples were included.

The aviation industry (passenger and freight), which currently accounts for 2.5% of the global CO2 emissions (1.9% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions), is continuously under pressure to reduce its environmental footprint, given its historical and forecasted environmental track, strongly affected by the remarkable air traffic volume increase rates, albeit with a slower growth in emissions, due to the massive aviation's efficiency improvements, driven by the in the design and technology(more efficient and larger) aircrafts; improved operational practices and increased load factors (more passengers and freight per flight). Nevertheless, it has not been enough to tackle the rapidly increasing CO2 emissions (26% in the 2013-2018 timeframe and expected to continue increasing), which ultimately could grow between 2.4 and 3.6 times by 2050.

Aircraft cabin temperature is controlled by regulating the cabin supply air temperature. This supply air temperature is a critical parameter which varies with respect to aircraft altitude and to be maintained properly to the required value corresponding to that altitude to have a good comfortable condition inside the cockpit. It is affected by many internal factors like engine bleed air flow rate, pressure, and temperature and also with external factors like ambient temperature, pressure, and attitude. Due to huge variations in these parameters especially in a fighter aircraft, the cabin temperature control system of this aircraft is often experience limit cycle oscillations and subsequent cabin temperature fluctuations. To minimize the cabin temperature fluctuations, suitable control logic needs to be considered at the design stage itself to avoid future tuning of such control system which makes additional flight-tests and generates large expenses.

Environmental Control System (ECS) of an aircraft provides required temperature, pressure and air flow to the cockpit or cabin or occupied compartments for the comfortable and required conditions of the occupant. Cabin pressure control system (CPCS), one of the sub-systems of ECS, controls and maintains the cabin pressure to provide a physiologically safe environment for the occupants inside the cabin. As ECS takes engine bleed air as input, any variation in engine rpm affects the cabin pressure and further the comfortable condition inside the cabin. This paper is focused on modeling and simulation of a fighter aircraft CPCS to evaluate its performance for its entire range of operation. The system is modeled and simulated in AMESim and the dynamic behavior of the system and its components are studied. Also, this paper emphasizes the effect of transient input characteristics on the cabin pressure with the cases of extreme variation in engine rpm and aircraft altitude.

Pressure regulating valves are one of the indispensable components in an aircraft. Its application is found in many critical systems such as anti-icing system, cabin pressurization, propulsion system, hydraulic system etc. In this study, the simulation and dynamic analysis of a pressure regulating anti-icing valve is discussed. The valve comprises of an arrangement of sliding piston and pressure chamber to regulate the pressure. It also includes a feedback loop to achieve self-regulation. The valve includes two functional halves for robustness as well as to have some redundant functionality if some components doesn’t function optimally as the operation calls for accuracy as well as precision. The principles behind the working of this valve includes the interaction of physical domains such as mechanical and fluid dynamics. The modeling of this valve is carried out in multi-domain physical state simulation in MATLAB/SIMULINK platform.

The Range Rover Evoque is a compact luxury SUV, first introduced by Land Rover in 2012. Almost 800,000 units of the first-generation vehicle were sold. This paper explores some of the challenges entailed in developing the next generation of this successful product, maintaining key design cues while at the same time improving its aerodynamic efficiency. A development approach is outlined that made use of both numerical simulation and full-scale moving ground wind tunnel testing. A drag coefficient of 0.32 was obtained for the best derivative by paying particular attention to: the integration of active grille shutters; the front bumper and tyre package; brake cooling; underfloor design; wake control strategy; and detail optimization. This approach delivered the most aerodynamic Range Rover at the time of its introduction. The impact of these design changes on the aerodynamic flow field and consequently drag is highlighted.

In last few years there has been great research to increase safety of on-road vehicles by providing information of various vehicle parameters to the user/driver while driving on road. Many algorithms have been developed to assess the vehicle run time situations and enable vehicle ECU to take decisions for autonomous driving. These algorithms are derived using data captured from sensors predominantly make use of vehicle dynamic information. The design proposed in this paper discusses capturing of two important and critical vehicle run time parameters i.) Vehicle tire pressure and the ii.) Road gradient. These parameters then help us in determining the effective fuel efficiency of the vehicle and approximate distance that user can drive with the amount of fuel remaining in the tank.

In the present scenario, wherein the cost of transportation is continuously increasing, achieving optimum fuel efficiency is key area of focus for many Automotive OEMs. Aerodynamic drag is prominent form of resistance any vehicle encounters while it is in motion, and this particularly increases at higher speeds and exceeds all other forms of resistive forces acting on vehicle. Hence, predicting and improving aerodynamic performance of a car forms a very important aspect in overall product design cycle. Engineers and designers around the world try different methods for predicting and improving the aerodynamics of a car, including rigorous wind tunnel & test track testing. In current paper, we will be discussing a novel approach to predict and improve the aerodynamic drag for a test vehicle (Ford-Ka) model.

The trend of powertrain electrification is quickly spreading from the automotive field into many other sectors. For ultra-light aircraft, needing a total installed propulsion power up to 150 kW, the combination of a specifically developed internal combustion engine (ICE) integrated with a state-of-the-art electric system (electric motor, inverter and battery) appears particularly promising. The dimensions and weight of ICE can be strongly reduced (downsizing), so that it can operate at higher efficiency at typical cruise conditions; a large power reserve is available for emergency maneuvers; in comparison to a full electric airplane, the hybrid powertrain makes possible to fly at zero emissions for a much longer time, or with a much heavier payload. On the other hand, the packaging of a hybrid powertrain into existing aircraft requires a specific design of the thermal engine, that must be light, compact, highly reliable and fuel efficient.

Due to new CO2 regulations and increasing demand for improved fuel economy, reducing aerodynamic drag has become more critical. Aerodynamic drag at the rear of the vehicle accounts for approximately 40% of overall aerodynamic drag due to low base pressure in the wake region. Many studies have focused on the wake region structure and shown that drag reduction modifications such as boattailing the rear end and sharpening the rear edges of the vehicle are effective. Despite optimization using such modifications, recent improvements in the aerodynamic drag coefficient (Cd) seem to have plateaued. One reason for this is the fact that vehicle design is oriented toward style and practicality. Hence, maintaining flexibility of design is crucial to the development of further drag reduction modifications. The purpose of this study was to devise a modification to reduce rear drag without imposing additional design restrictions on the upper body.

Lane changing manoeuvers is an essential rudiment in vehicle driving and has a significant impact on the characteristics of traffic flow. In the case of traditional cars, the driver operates the vehicle to complete the lane change whilst for autonomous vehicles, completing the lane change requires planning the lane change trajectory and controlling the vehicle speed during the lane change. Unreasonable lane change trajectory and vehicle speed may cause the vehicle to lose stability, threaten driving safety, increase energy consumption and waste energy. This paper considers the safety and economy of the lane changing process, and proposes a new lane changing method for vehicles.

Having connectivity among ground vehicles brings about benefits in fuel economy improvement, traffic mobility enhancement and undesired emission reductions. On the other hand, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have proven to help in getting aerial data to end users in an affordable manner. When UAVs are equipped with cameras, they can get information about the terrain they are flying over. Moreover, using Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication technologies, it is possible to form a communication link between UAVs and the connected ground vehicle networks comprising of Connected and Autonomous vehicles (CAVs). To investigate and exploit the potential benefits and use cases of a broad vehicle network, a microscopic traffic simulator modified previously by our group with the addition of nearby UAVs is used to integrate simulated Connected UAVs flying above a realistic simulation of heterogeneous traffic flow containing both CAVs and non-CAVs.

The centrifugal compressor is one of the most commonly used air compressors for fuel cell air supply systems, and it has the small volume, high pressure ratio and low noise. However, surge in a centrifugal compressor severely limits its stable flow range. In this paper, a mathematical model of the compressor aerodynamic performance based on the energy transfer method was established, some parameters of model were identified by experimental data, and the model was validated through experiments. Then the dynamic model of the compression system was derived based on the compressor model and the Moore-Greitzer model. The stability analysis of the compression system was conducted, and it was strictly proved that when the compression system is unstable, there is the limit cycle in this nonlinear system, namely the surge cycle. Furthermore, the simulation of the compression system was conducted and the instability condition of the compression system was presented.

In order to achieve the purpose of saving energy and reducing emission, the improvement of aerodynamic performance plays an increasingly crucial role for car manufacturers. Previous studies have confirmed the validity of gradient-based adjoint algorithm for its high efficiency in shape optimization. In this paper, two important aspects of adjoint approach were explored. One is vehicle aerodynamic optimization with multiple objectives, and the other is using time-averaged flow results as the primal solution, both are issues of high interest in recent applications. First, adjoint shape optimization with steady-state and time-averaged flow simulations were respectively calculated and comparatively discussed based on a production SUV. The shape modifications of the two cases indicated that the impact of primal solution on design change could not be neglected, due to the different intrinsic codes of steady and transient turbulence models.

With the increasing adoption of electric vehicles in India, autos are also getting in the electrification race with lighter lithium-ion batteries and motor replacing the bulkier engine and transmission. This trend has led to a lighter vehicle which in-turn gives better mileage figures but at the loss of dynamic stability of the vehicle making them very unsafe. The current auto-rickshaws are using delta configuration that is more prone to the rollover while cornering. The three-wheeled configuration vehicle is less dynamically stable than the normal four-wheeled configurations. While working on prototype vehicle for Shell Eco-Marathon Asia [7] pro and cons for both configurations for a three-wheeled vehicle were considered and tadpole configuration was found to be more stable and better than current delta configuration.

In the automotive applications, the main functionality of the HVAC system includes heating, ventilation, and cooling or air-conditioning of the vehicle to achieve the desired indoor thermal comfort. In the current scenario, the conventional vapor compression based HVAC system is widely used. The typical refrigerants used to operate this equipment include HFCs and HFOs which are susceptible to cause an environmental hazard. This article aims to assess the performance of a hypothetical solar-driven thermoelectric based rotary desiccant wheel HVAC system (D-HVAC) to be used for automotive applications. The D-HVAC system uses the desiccant wheel to remove the latent heat, energy wheel to remove the sensible heat, evaporating coolers to achieve further cooling, the regeneration of the desiccant wheel by hot air and water as the refrigerant. In the case of a solar-driven-DHVAC system, solar energy is utilized for the regeneration of the desiccant wheel in place of hot air.

Automated fiber placement of pre-impregnated (pre-preg), thermoset carbon materials has been industrialized for decades whereas dry-fiber carbon materials have only been produced at relatively low rates or volumes for large aerospace structures. This paper explores the differences found when processing dry-fiber, thermoset, carbon materials (DFP) as compared to processing pre-preg, thermoset materials with Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) equipment at high rates. Changes to the equipment are required when converting from pre-preg to dry fiber material processing. Specifically, the heating systems, head controls, and tow tension control all must be enhanced when transitioning to DFP processes. Although these new enhancements also require changes in safety measures, the changes are relatively small for high performance systems. Processing dry fiber material requires a higher level of heating, tension control and added safety measures.

Vehicle aerodynamic drag reduction is the effective technique to enhance the fuel economy, performance and top speed of a vehicle. Out of the total drag, the underbody drag contributes about 40-50% by the parts like wheel arch, wheel housing, and the wheels. This further increases in the case of vehicles with higher CG. Thus, it seems logical to focus attention on the underbody aerodynamic drag reduction. In this study, an active spoiler is placed towards the front end of the vehicle which will divert the air flow from the front towards the radiator. The active spoiler revolves according to the signals received from the radar sensors placed at the lower end to detect obstacles which will prevent it from damage. The aim of the study is to examine the effect of the air flow diversion on underbody drag. The effect of air flow diversion on fuel consumption, radiator effectiveness and top speed is numerically evaluated.