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The conventional internal combustion engines continue to dominate many fields like transportation, agriculture and power generation. Moreover, apprehension over oil price restriction has created an unprecedented demand for fuel economy. Diesel engine is mostly preferred for its higher thermal efficiency, high-torque and outstanding longevity. In recent days with flooded technologies, Uniqueness and the Differentiation of Product play vital role for a successful business in Auto Industry. The present invention is related to the Challenges of Design & Development of Conventional Diesel Engine to meet the stringent emission & performance requirements (BS-IV) of Internal Combustion engines, and more particularly to achieve the targets with conventional Fuel Injection Systems (Non-electronic Fuel Injectors, In-Line Fuel Injection Pump-Governed Electronically) with required sub-systems on IC engine.

In electric vehicles, Li-ion battery pack is the most expensive subsystem. Therefore, extending the life of the battery pack and thereby reducing the need for battery pack replacement is necessary to offer a viable product at a competitive cost of ownership. Thermal management of battery pack plays an important role in achieving the above mentioned objective since the performance and life of lithium ion batteries is greatly influenced by temperature. There are various thermal management strategies available to keep the temperature under control like air cooling, chilled liquid cooling and hybrid cooling systems. In this paper, a comparison between phase change material (PCM) and PCM/liquid hybrid cooling is made. The result of the study to understand the applicability of PCM for thermal management of Li-ion batteries is presented. CFD thermal analysis under constant electrical load of 1C rate is carried out.

In the past decades, many impressive progress has been made in the rig development for the gear validation. But, the challenges are to test the entire gear box for the improvement in the single gear alone to ascertain material quality or process improvement, that too with the higher torque range gear boxes, which requires huge investment and power consumption due to high capacity test rig / dynamometer. This paper deals with an experimental validation of the dynamic model for a gear pair test system, representative of a closed loop power recirculating type test rig. Being a closed loop, this system has its own uniqueness, that, it uses the low capacity prime mover, which considers the initial starting loop torque only, to cater the high power requirement in an efficient manner. The key intend of the development of this rig is to reduce the testing from system level to sub component level with low cost operation and more competence for the gears of high torque application.

Bogie-type suspensions for trucks are comprised of two axles and a central spring pack on each side of the truck chassis. Bogie suspensions have a good load distribution between the axles and are used for severe applications in trucks, in off-road conditions thereby subjecting them to extreme stain and load. In today’s competitive market scenario, it of utmost importance to minimize down time in commercial vehicles as it directly corresponds to loss in business which leads to customer dissatisfaction. It is therefore essential to optimize and select the right material for each component in the bogie suspension system. This paper deals with the material selection and testing of one such component - Bogie Wear Pad. The bogie wear pad undergoes sliding friction throughout its lifetime during loading and unloading of bogie suspension. Three different materials are selected and their wear is measured under the same conditions of loading.

Powertrain is the major source of noise and vibration in commercial vehicles and has significant contribution on both interior and exterior noise levels. It is vital to reduce the radiated noise from powertrain to meet customer expectations of vehicle comfort and to abide by the legislative noise requirements. Sound intensity mapping technique can identify the critical components of noise radiation from the powertrain. Sound intensity mapping has revealed that oil sump as one of the major contributors for radiated noise from powertrain. Accounting the effect of dynamic coupling of oil on the sump is crucial in predicting its noise radiation performance. Through numerical methods, some amount of work done in predicting the dynamic characteristics of structures filled with fluid. This paper discusses on the capability of numerical approach in predicting the oil sump modal characteristics with fluid-structure interaction and consequent verification with experimental modal test results.

Cross flow heat exchangers are very common in automotive vehicle thermal management systems. The most important and standard fitment of any vehicle is the radiator, a cross flow heat exchanger for engine cooling systems. As a vehicle manufacturer, selection of a cooling system based on the requirements is very critical especially when the radiators are sourced from multiple sources and of different configurations. So, these different types of radiator have to be compared on the same level for effective selection of heat exchangers. This demands the common methodology to be created to understand the heat exchanger performance with different geometrical input from different sources. In this study, an empirical cum analytical based methodology has been developed for generating the performance characteristics of the louvered fin heat exchanger using the thermal resistance and Number of Transfer Units (NTU) method.

In this paper, valve spring parameters are optimized based on an iterative logic with constraint on space availability, stress limit, stiffness and natural frequency of the system. The optimized valve spring configuration is used in the push rod type valve train and the valve train dynamics for different engine speed is studied using commercially available multi-body dynamic ADMAS software. The valve train components such as cam, tappet, push rod, rocker arm, valve retainers and valve are modelled as rigid bodies and the valve springs (inner and outer valve springs) are modelled as flexible bodies. Each coil of the springs is modelled as separate flexible body and contact between these coils are established. A comparative valve train dynamics analysis is also carried out with the existing and optimized valve spring combinations.

The two major areas of engine development, the automobile industry is concentrating and putting its major product development efforts on are emission control and improved fuel efficiency. These developments either directly or indirectly impact the cooling system requirements significantly. A small change in cooling system requires the vehicle to undergo cooling tests before commercial release to make sure it performs as per requirements. Normally, on an average, 4-5 trials are conducted before clearing the vehicle for production. This involves a lot of time, efforts and resources. The objective of this study is to develop a methodology to predict the cooling system performance analytically and validate the results with experimental data. This study will help in reducing the number of trials thereby saving cost, time and efforts involved. Basic components of cooling system include radiator, charge air cooler and fan.

All automotive components undergo stringent testing protocol during the design validation phase. Nevertheless, there are certain components in the field which are seldom captured during design validation. One of these components is the battery isolator switch. This project aims at optimizing a validation methodology for this component based on field usage and conditions. The isolator switch is the main control switch which connects and disconnects the electrical loads from the battery. This switch is used in the electrical circuit of the vehicle to prevent unwanted draining of battery when it is not needed and when the vehicle is in switched off. An electrical version of this switch uses electromagnetic coils to short the contacts. The failure mode being investigated is a high current load causing the input and output terminal to be welded.

The Bogie suspensions ensure better stability at higher loads and also give the utmost reliability under extreme climatic conditions with minimum maintenance. Many vehicle manufactures have adopted for the bogie suspension at rear based on its advantages. The noises generated from the vehicle in the field includes engine noises and flow noises and hence it is very difficult to clearly discern the noise generated from suspension system of the vehicle [1]. Most suspension system noises do not come from a single part but they are caused by the coupling action between related parts, making it difficult to clearly identify the exact cases. This paper details the overall approach to identify the bogie suspension noise on a commercial vehicle and countermeasures to reduce the same.

In heavy commercial vehicle segment in India, driver comfort and feel was largely ignored. Fierce competition in the recent years and buyer’s market trend is compelling the designers of heavy truck to focus more on the finer aspects of attribute refinements. Steering is one driver-Vehicle interface which the driver is engaged throughout. Comfort and feel in steering wheel is defined by parameters like steering effort, manoeuvrability, on-center feel & response, cornering feel & response, Torque dead band, return-ability etc. and is influenced by a long list of components and systems in the truck. This study focuses on the influences of jacking torque and steering system friction on the on-center driving performance. Experiments to measure the Jacking torque and steering system friction were conducted in the lab and subjective and objective assessments of on-center driving performance were later conducted at test track in two similar 12 Ton truck to correlate their effects.

In today competitive world, gaining customer delight is the most vital part of an automotive business. Customers’ expectations are high which need to be satisfied limitless, to stay in the business. The major expectation of a commercial vehicle customer is a vehicle without failures which involves lower spares cost and downtime. The significance of a suspension system in the new age automobiles is getting advanced. There have been many improvements in the suspension system especially in leaf springs to provide a better ride comfort, and one such modern era implementation is the Parabolic Spring which comprises of fewer leaves with varying thickness from the center to the ends without inter-leaf friction. Study reveals that parabolic spring exhibits better ride comfort, but less life compared to a conventional leaf spring which leads to the increase in downtime of the vehicle.

Automotive component light weighing is one of the major goals for original equipment manufacturers (OEM's) globally. Significant advances are being made in developing light-weight high performance components. In order to achieve weight savings in vehicles, the OEM's and component suppliers are increasingly using ultra-high-strength steel, aluminum, magnesium, plastics and composites. One way is to develop a light weight high performance component through multi material concept. In this present study, a bimetal brake drum of inner ring cast iron and outer shell of aluminum has been made in two different design configurations. In two different designs, 40 and 26% weight saving has been achieved as compared to conventional gray cast iron brake drum. The component level performance has been evaluated by dynamometer test. The heat dissipation and wear behavior has been analyzed. In both designs, the wear performance of the bimetal brake drum was similar to the gray cast iron material.

Steering gear box function is one of the important requirements in heavy vehicles in order to reduce driver fatigue. Improper functioning of steering gear box not only increases the driver fatigue, also concerns the safety of the vehicle. In this present investigation, the engine oil mixing up with steering oil has been identified and steering gear box failure has been observed in the customer vehicle. The root cause of failure has been analyzed. Based on the investigations, in particular design of steering pump has been failed at customer end. The same design of steering pump were segregated and analyzed. Initial pressure mapping study has been conducted. The pressure mapping results revealed that the cavity pressure obstructs the flow of suction pressure. It indicates that obstacle at suction port due to the existence of internal leakage that causes back pressure in the internal cavity of steering pump which sucks engine oil.

The commercial vehicle industry is evolving faster with the rise in multifarious aspects deciding a company's progress. In the current scenario, vehicle performance and its reliability in the areas of payload, fuel economy, etc. play vital roles in determining its sustenance in the industry, in addition to reducing driver fatigue and improving comfort levels. Test quality and time is the key to assure and affirm, smooth and quick launch of the product into the market. This paper details on the design of Multi-Axis road data simulator which entails realistic loads onto the components for capturing meaningful information on behavior of the product and recreate the field failure modes. The design was conceptualized keeping in mind both cost (for initial installation and running cost) and time for testing without loss in the convergence factor.

Nozzles tip Temperature (NTT) of an injector is a critical parameter for an engine as far as reliability of engine is concerned. It is required to ensure that the injectors operate under its operational limit because higher operating temperatures would result in enlargement of the nozzle spray tip, resulting in higher through flow, producing more undesirable power. This could result in failure of other components in the engine. In this paper we identify the various parameters that are critical for NTT and thereby predict the NTT by having the known input parameters. Response surface methodology and artificial neural network are used to identify the parameters, estimate the significance of each parameter and predict the NTT. Based on this analysis, even without the use of an instrumented injector NTT can be predicted at various working conditions of the vehicle on different terrains.

Steering wheel being the most used tactile point in a vehicle, its feel and response is an important factor based on which the vehicle quality is judged. Engineering the right feel and response into the system requires knowledge of the objective parameters that relate to the driver perception. Extensive correlation work has been done in the past pertaining to passenger cars, but the driver requirements for commercial vehicles vary significantly. Often it becomes difficult to match the right parameters to the steering feel experienced by the drivers, since most of the standard ISO weave test units used to describe them are of zero or first order parameters. Analyzing the second order parameters gave a better method to reason driver related feel. Also, each subjective attribute was fragmented into sub-attributes to identify the reason for such a rating resulting in the identification of the major subjective parameters affecting driver ratings.

This paper describes a methodology for design and development of On-Board Diagnostic system (OBD) with an objective to improve current reliability process in order to ensure design & quality of the new system as per requirement of commercial vehicle technology. OBD is a system that detects failures which adversely affect emissions and illuminates a MIL (Malfunction Indicator Lamp) to inform the driver of a fault which may lead to increase in emissions. OBD provides standard and unrestricted access for diagnosis and repair. Below given Figure 1 shows the working principle of OBD system. The exhaust emission of a vehicle will be controlled primarily by Engine Control Unit (ECU) and Exhaust Gas After Treatment Control (EGAS CU). These two control units determine the combined operating strategies of the engine and after treatment device. Figure 1 Modern Control Architecture for OBD System in Commercial vehicle [1]

The demand for comfort level in commercial vehicles is steadily increasing. Hence, fine-tuned performance parameters and attributes are required to fulfill the expectations from these vehicles. Refinement of noise and vibration without affecting performances of sub-systems and components has become extremely challenging with increasing customer requirements. This paper presents an approach to identify and reduce the high level whistling noise that was perceived in the passenger compartment while the vehicle was accelerated above 50 kmph. Interior noise measurements in static engine run-up condition reveal that the whistling noise is of specific order. Since, whistling noise is related to aerodynamic response of components, engine cooling fan, turbo charger, alternators and compressors were suspected. Using order tracking and near field measurements, HVAC alternator was confirmed as the main cause for whistling noise.

The suspension system in a vehicle isolates the frame and body from road shocks and vibrations which would otherwise be transferred to the passengers and goods. Heavier goods vehicles use tandem axles at the rear for load carrying. Both the axles should be inter-connected to eliminate overloading of any one axle when this goes over a bump or a ditch. One of the inter-connecting mechanism used is leaf spring with tie rod, bell crank & linkages, when the first rear axle moves over a bump, the linkages equalize the loading on the second rear axle. This paper details about the failure analysis methodology to simulate the tie rod field failure using a six poster road simulator and to identify the root cause of the failure and further corrective actions.