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The BMW Group has introduced electric cars to the market with the MINI E already in 2009. The next step will be the launch of the BMW ActiveE in 2011, followed by the revolutionary Mega City Vehicle in 2013. The presentation will explain the BMW Group strategy for implementing sustainable mobility. A focus will be emobility, the use of carbon fiber and the holistic sustainability approach of BMW Group?s project i. Reference will be made to the research results of the MINI E projects in the US and in Europe. Presenter Andreas Klugescheid, BMW AG

With increasing efforts towards rapid electrification of powertrains, NVH engineers face new set of challenges. Elimination of the IC engines drastically reduces powertrain borne noise levels but unmasks other existing noises like wind, road, ancillary devices, and squeak & rattle. In addition, the new tonal sounds from electro-mechanical drive systems makes the noise more annoying even though it is lesser quantitatively. In summary, the electrification of powertrains has shifted powertrain NVH development from overall level to sound quality with different targets requiring several electro-mechanical solutions with innovative simulation, testing, and optimization approaches. The purpose of the paper is to present an approach to detect, quantify, and optimize the structure-borne radiated noise of an electric motor due to electromagnetic forces or maxwell pressure exerted by magnetic effects in electric motor.

Current legal requirements based on new driving cycles like WLTP or RDE focus on elevated power and torque from the engine. The gear ratios are chosen so as to permit low engine speeds to reduce fuel consumption and consequently CO2 emissions by shifting the operating point to higher loads with reduced throttling and friction losses at low engine speeds. To achieve the required acceleration values the engine tends to be operated more frequently close to its power and torque limits. Thus, the knock occurring at the load limits will increase in significance. Today, in series production, knock is detected via structure-borne sound sensors and eliminated via retarded ignition. New low-cost in-cylinder pressure sensors (ICPS) suitable for series-production now permit evaluation of every single combustion cycle, thus detecting knock in the engine control unit (ECU) at all speed and load ratios independent of parasitic noise.

It is essential to include uncertainties in the simulation process in order to perform reliable vibroacoustic predictions in the early design phase. In this contribution, uncertainties are quantified using the generalized Polynomial Chaos (gPC) expansion in combination with a Finite Element (FE) model of a vehicle body in white. It is the objective to particularly investigate the applicability of the gPC method in the industrial context with a high number of uncertain parameters and computationally expensive models. A non-intrusive gPC expansion of first and second order is implemented and the approximation of a stochastic response process is compared to a Latin Hypercube sampling based reference solution with special regard to accuracy and computational efficiency. Furthermore, the method is examined for other input distributions and transferred to another FE model in order to verify the applicability of the gPC method in practical applications.

During the last decades, big steps have been taken towards a realistic simulation of NVH (Noise Vibration Harshness) behavior of vehicles using the Finite Element (FE) method. The quality of these computation models has been substantially increased and the accessible frequency range has been widened. Nevertheless, to perform a reliable prediction of the vehicle vibroacoustic behavior, the consideration of uncertainties is crucial. With this approach there are many challenges on the way to valid and useful simulation models and they can be divided into three areas: the input uncertainties, the propagation of uncertainties through the FE model and finally the statistical output quantities. Each of them must be investigated to choose sufficient methods for a valid and fast prediction of vehicle body vibroacoustics. It can be shown by rough estimation that dimensionality of the corresponding random space for different types of uncertainty is tremendously high.

This paper describes a novel approach for modeling an automotive HVAC unit. The model consists of black-box models trained with experimental data from a self-developed measurement setup. It is capable of predicting the temperature and mass flow of the air entering the vehicle cabin at the various air vents. A combination of temperature and velocity sensors is the basis of the measurement setup. A measurement fault analysis is conducted to validate the accuracy of the measurement system. As the data collection is done under fluctuating ambient conditions, a review of the impact of various ambient conditions on the HVAC unit is performed. Correction models that account for the different ambient conditions incorporate these results. Numerous types of black-box models are compared to identify the best-suited type for this approach. Moreover, the accuracy of the model is validated using test drive data.

Two of the most commonly exercised standards for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) by automotive engineers are CISPR 12 and CISPR 25. While CISPR 12 is imposed as a regulation to ensure uninterrupted communication for off-board receivers, CISPR 25 is often applied to ensure the quality of services of on-board receivers. Performing these tests becomes challenging until the vehicle is prototyped which may prolong the production time in case of failure or need for modification. However, conducting these tests in a simulation environment can offer more time and cost-efficient ways of analyzing the electromagnetic environment of automotive vehicles. In this paper, a computational approach is proposed in order to predict electromagnetic disturbance from on-board electronics/electrical systems using 3D computational electromagnetic (CEM) tool; Altair Feko.

Beside the main trend technologies such as downsizing, down speeding, external exhaust gas recirculation, and turbocharging in combination with Miller cycles, the optimization of the mechanical efficiency of gasoline engines is an important task in meeting future CO2 emission targets. Friction in the piston assembly is responsible for up to 45% of the total mechanical loss in a gasoline engine. Therefore, optimizing piston assembly friction is a valuable approach in improving the total efficiency of an internal combustion engine. The form honing process enables new specific shapes of the cylinder liner surface. These shapes, such as a conus or bottle neck, help enlarge the operating clearance between the piston assembly and the cylinder liner, which is one of the main factors influencing piston assembly friction.

A main challenge when developing next generation architectures for automated driving ECUs is to guarantee reliable functionality. Today’s fail safe systems will not be able to handle electronic failures due to the missing “mechanical” fallback or the intervening driver. This means, fail operational based on redundancy is an essential part for improving the functional safety, especially in safety-related braking and steering systems. The 2-out-of-2 Diagnostic Fail Safe (2oo2DFS) system is a promising approach to realize redundancy with manageable costs. In this contribution, we evaluate the reliability of this concept for a symmetric and an asymmetric Electronic Power Steering (EPS) ECU. For this, we use a Markov chain model as a typical method for analyzing the reliability and Mean Time To Failure (MTTF) in majority redundancy approaches. As a basis, the failure rates of the used components and the microcontroller are considered.

The open jet wind tunnel is a widespread test section configuration for developing full scale passenger cars in the automotive industry. However, using a realizable nozzle cross section for cost effective aerodynamic development is always connected to the presence of wind tunnel effects. Wind tunnel wall interferences which are not present under open road conditions, can affect the measurement of aerodynamic forces. Thus, wind tunnel corrections may be required. This work contains the results of a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) approach using unsteady Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations (DDES) to evaluate wind tunnel interferences for open jet test sections. The Full Scale DrivAer reference geometry of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) using different rear end shapes has been selected for these investigations.

A low profile high directivity antenna is designed to operate at 5.9 GHz for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications to ensure connectivity in different propagation channels. Patch antennas are still an ongoing topic of interest due to their advantages: low profile, low cost, and ease of fabrication. One disadvantage of the patch antenna is low directivity which results in low range performance. In this paper, we introduce an efficient and novel way to improve the directivity of patch antenna using topology optimization and design of experiments (DoE). Numerical simulations are done using Method of Moments (MoM) technique in the commercially available tool, FEKO. We use global response surface method (GRSM) for double objectives topology optimization. Numerical results show a promising use of topology optimization and DoE techniques for the systematic design of high directivity of low profile single element patch antennas.

Highly automated driving (HAD) is under rapid development and will be available for customers within the next years. However the evidence that HAD is at least as safe as human driving has still not been produced. The challenge is to drive hundreds of millions of test kilometers without incidents to show that statistically HAD is significantly safer. One approach is to let a HAD function run in parallel with human drivers in customer cars to utilize a fraction of the billions of kilometers driven every year. To guarantee safety, the function under test (FUT) has access to sensors but its output is not executed, which results in an open loop problem. To overcome this shortcoming, the proposed method consists of four steps to close the loop for the FUT. First, sensor data from real driving scenarios is fused in a world model and enhanced by incorporating future time steps into original measurements.

Development processes for modern combustion engines already make substantial use of more or less sophisticated simulation approaches. The enhancement of computational resources additionally allows the increasing use of simulation tools in terms of time-consuming three-dimensional CFD approaches. In particular, the preliminary estimation of feasible operating ranges and strategies requires a vast multitude of single simulations. Here, multi-zone simulation approaches incorporate the advantages of comparably short simulation durations. Nevertheless, the combination with more detailed sub-models allows these rather simple modeling approaches to offer considerable insight into relevant engine operation phenomena. In the context of combustion process development, this paper describes a phenomenological model approach for the prediction of operating point characteristics of a dual-fuel pilot injection combustion process.

Wet-running multi-plate clutches and brakes are important components of modern powershift gearboxes and industrial powertrains. In the open stage, drag losses occur due to fluid shear. The identification of drag losses is possible by experiment or CFD-simulation. For the calculation of the complex fluid flow of an open clutch, CFD-approaches such as the volume of fluid (vof) method or the Singhal cavitation model are applicable. Every method has its own specific characteristics. This contribution sets up CFD-calculation models for different clutches with diverse groove designs. We present results of calculations in various operating conditions obtained from the Singhal cavitation model and the vof method. The usage of modern commercial CFD-Tools (Simerics MP+) results in short calculation times.

The development of hydrogen-fueled vehicles has created the need for established fuel consumption testing methods. Until now the EPA has only accepted three methods of hydrogen fuel consumption testing, gravimetric, PVT (stabilized pressure, volume and temperature), and Coriolis mass flow; all of which necessitate physical measurements of the fuel supply [1]. BMW has developed an equation and subsequent testing methods to accurately and effectively determine hydrogen fuel consumption in light-duty vehicles using only exhaust emissions. Known as “Hydrogen-Balance”, the new equation requires no changes to EPA procedures and only slight modifications to most existing chassis dynamometers and CVS (Constant Volume Sampling) systems. The SAE 2008-01-1036, also written by BMW, explains the background as well as required equipment and changes to the CVS testing system. This paper takes hydrogen balance further by testing it against the three EPA established forms of fuel consumption.

The Hydrogen-Balance equation makes it possible to calculate the fuel economy or fuel consumption of hydrogen powered vehicles simply by analyzing exhaust emissions. While the benefits of such a method are apparent, it is important to discuss possible influencing factors that may decrease Hydrogen-Balance accuracy. Measuring vehicle exhaust emissions is done with a CVS (Constant Volume Sampling) system. While the CVS system has proven itself both robust and precise over the years, utilizing it for hydrogen applications requires extra caution to retain measurement accuracy. Consideration should be given to all testing equipment, as well as the vehicle being tested. Certain environmental factors may also play a role not just in Hydrogen-Balance accuracy, but as also in other low emission testing accuracy.

Aerodynamic design and thermal management are some of the most important tasks when developing new concepts for the flow around tractor-trailers. Today, both experimental and numerical studies are an integral part of the aerodynamic and thermal design processes. A variety of studies have been conducted how the aerodynamic design reduces the drag coefficient for fuel efficiency as well as for the construction of radiators to provide cooling on tractor-trailers. However, only a few studies cover the combined effect of the aerodynamic and thermal design on the air temperature of the under hood flow [8, 13, 16, 17, 20]. The objective of this study is to analyze the heat transfer through forced convection for a scaled Cab-over-Engine (CoE) tractor-trailer model with under hood flow. Different design concepts are compared to provide low under hood air temperature and efficient cooling of the sub components.

Today's automotive software integration is a static process. Hardware and software form a fixed package and thus hinder the integration of new electric and electronic features once the specification has been completed. Usually software components assigned to an ECU cannot be easily transferred to other devices after they have been deployed. The main reasons are high system configuration and integration complexity, although shifting functions from one to another ECU is a feature which is generally supported by AUTOSAR. The concept of a Virtual Functional Bus allows a strict separation between applications and infrastructure and avoids source code modifications. But still further tooling is needed to reconfigure the AUTOSAR Basic Software (BSW). Other challenges for AUTOSAR are mixed integrity, versioning and multi-core support. The upcoming BMW E/E-domain oriented architecture will require all these features to be scalable across all vehicle model ranges.

Computational models directly derived from data gained increased interest in recent years. Data-driven approaches have brought breakthroughs in different research areas such as image-, video- and audio-processing. Often denoted as Machine Learning (ML), today these approaches are not widely applied in the field of vehicle Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH). Works combining ML and NVH mainly discuss the topic with respect to psychoacoustics, traffic noise, structural health monitoring and as improvement to existing numerical simulation methods. Vehicle interior noise is a major quality criterion for today’s automotive customers. To estimate noise levels early in the development process, deterministic system descriptions are created by utilizing time-consuming measurement techniques. This paper examines whether pattern-recognizing algorithms are suitable to conduct the prediction process for a steering system.

The reduction of vehicle exhaust particle emissions is a success story of European legislation. Various particle number (PN) counters and calibration procedures serve as tools to enforce PN emission limits during vehicle type approval (VTA) or periodical technical inspection (PTI) of in-use vehicles. Although all devices and procedures apply to the same PN-metric, they were developed for different purposes, by different stakeholder groups and for different target costs and technical scopes. Furthermore, their calibration procedures were independently defined by different stakeholder communities. This frequently leads to comparability and interpretation issues. Systematic differences of stationary and mobile PN counters (PN-PEMS) are well-documented. New, low-cost PTI PN counters will aggravate this problem. Today, tools to directly compare different instruments are scarce.