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The goal of this interview analysis was to explore and document the perceptions of two unique lane centering systems (S90’s Pilot Assist and CT6’s Super Cruise). Both systems offer a similar type of functionality (adaptive cruise control and lane centering), but have significantly different design philosophies and HMI (Human-Machine Interface) implementations. Twenty-four drivers drove one of the two vehicle models for a month as part of a field operational test (FOT) study. Upon vehicle return, drivers took part in a 60-minute semi-structured interview covering their perceptions of the vehicle’s various advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). Transcripts of the interviews were coded by two researchers, who tagged each statement with relevant system and perception code labels. For analysis, the perception codes were grouped into larger thematic bins of safety, comfort, driver attention, and system performance.

In today's highly competitive automotive markets manufacturers must provide high quality products to survive. Manufacturers can achieve higher levels of quality by changing or improving their manufacturing process and/or by product inspection where many strategies with different cost implications are often available. Cost of Quality (CoQ) reconciles the competing objectives of quality maximization and cost minimization and serves as a useful framework for comparing available manufacturing process and inspection alternatives. In this paper, an analytic CoQ framework is discussed and some key findings are demonstrated using a set of basic inspection strategy scenarios. A case of a welded automotive assembly is chosen to explore the CoQ tradeoffs in inspection strategy selection and the value of welding process improvement. In the assembly process, many individual components are welded in series and each weld is inspected for quality.

Current CJ-4 lubricant specifications place chemical limits on diesel engine oil formulations to minimize the accumulation of lubricant-derived ash in diesel particulate filters (DPF). While lubricant additive chemistry plays a strong role in determining the amount and type of ash accumulated in the DPF, a number of additional factors play important roles as well. Relative to soot particles, whose residence time in the DPF is short-lived, ash particles remain in the filter for a significant fraction of the filter's useful life. While it is well-known that the properties (packing density, porosity, permeability) of soot deposits are primarily controlled by the local exhaust conditions at the time of particle deposition in the DPF, the cumulative operating history of the filter plays a much stronger role in controlling the properties and distribution of the accumulated ash.

Gaseous and particle emissions from a gasoline direct injection (GDI) and a port fuel injection (PFI) vehicle were measured at various ambient temperatures (22°C, -7°C, -18°C). These vehicles were driven over the U.S. Federal Test Procedure 75 (FTP-75) and US06 Supplemental Federal Test Procedure (US06) on Tier 2 certification gasoline (E0) and 10% by volume ethanol (E10). Emissions were analyzed to determine the impact of ambient temperature on exhaust emissions over different driving conditions. Measurements on the GDI vehicle with a gasoline particulate filter (GPF) installed were also made to evaluate the GPF particle filtration efficiency at cold ambient temperatures. The GDI vehicle was found to have better fuel economy than the PFI vehicle at all test conditions. Reduction in ambient temperature increased the fuel consumption for both vehicles, with a much larger impact on the cold-start FTP-75 drive cycle observed than for the hot-start US06 drive cycle.

Spot, or distributed, cooling and heating is an energy efficient way of delivering comfort to an occupant in the car. This paper describes an approach to distributed cooling in the vehicle. A two passenger CFD model of an SUV cabin was developed to obtain the solar and convective thermal loads on the vehicle, characterize the interior thermal environment and accurately evaluate the fluid-thermal environment around the occupants. The present paper focuses on the design and CFD analysis of the energy efficient HVAC system with spot cooling. The CFD model was validated with wind tunnel data for its overall accuracy. A baseline system with conventional HVAC air was first analyzed at mid and high ambient conditions. The airflow and cooling delivered to the driver and the passenger was calculated. Subsequently, spot cooling was analyzed in conjunction with a much lower conventional HVAC airflow.

This paper reports the results of a fuel economy and regulated emissions survey of 15 gasoline powered generators. Tests were conducted at Environment Canada's Emission Research and Measurement Division (ERMD) facilities in Ottawa. The generators ranged in output capacity from 0.9kW to 7.0kW maximum rated output (MRO). They were obtained from a variety of sources including commercial rental companies and from other Environment Canada Divisions. The generators were operated on summer grade commercial fuel over a 6 mode test cycle when possible. The testing was designed to mimic the certification test the engines would undergo in an engine dynamometer test configuration with the exception that the loading was simulated by a load bank connected to the generators electrical output(s).

The dependence of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle energies on driving conditions and ambient temperature is presented for different drive cycles (2xLA4, 2xLA92, 2xUS06, HWFET and 2xNYCC) and temperatures (20°C and -18°C). The tests were carried out at the Emissions Research and Measurement Division of Environment Canada. Hybrid battery pack current was measured at a frequency of 10 Hz. Regenerative braking energy, charging energy from the engine and battery discharge energy were estimated by using modal speed. The magnitudes of battery energies were found to be directly related to drive cycle properties. Battery discharge energy was very strongly correlated to emission factors of CO₂, while energy recovered by regenerative braking and charging energy from the engine had low to very strong correlations to CO₂ emission factors. CO, NOx and HC had low linear correlations to battery discharge energy.

For this work, a methodology of modeling and predicting fuel consumption in a hybrid vehicle as a function of the engine operating temperature has been developed for cold ambient operation (-7°C, 266°K). This methodology requires two steps: 1) development of a temperature dependent engine brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) map, and, 2) a data-fitting technique for predicting engine temperature to be used as an input to the temperature dependent BSFC maps. For the first step, response surface methodology (RSM) techniques were applied to generate brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) maps as a function of the engine thermal state. For the second step, data fitting techniques were also used to fit a simplified lumped capacitance heat transfer model using several experimental datasets. Utilizing these techniques, an analysis of fuel consumption as a function of thermal state across a broad range of engine operating conditions is presented.

This paper will present emissions durability data from an underground mining vehicle equipped with diesel particulate filter technology, which was followed over 4000 hrs on a Detroit Diesel Series 60 engine. The twin particulate filter system is catalyzed using a base metal formulation on cordierite wall flow monoliths. After the durability accumulation, the recovered filters were individually emissions tested on a Detroit Diesel Series 50 engine over the ISO 8178 test cycle. Performance, maintenance and emissions issues pertaining to base metal catalysts will be discussed.

In urban areas, particulate emission from diesel engines is one of the pollutants of most concern. As a result, particulate emission control from urban bus diesel engines using particle filter technology is being evaluated at several locations in the US. A project entitled, “Clean Diesel Vehicle Air Quality Project” has been initiated by NY City Transit under the supervision of NYSDEC and with active participation from several industry partners. Under this program, 25 NY City transit buses with DDC Series 50 engines have been equipped with continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter systems and have been operating with ultra low sulfur diesel (< 30 ppm S) in transit service in Manhattan since February 2000. These buses were evaluated over a 9 month period for operations, maintainability and durability of the particulate filter.

The focus of this study is to validate the predictive capability of a recently developed physiology based thermal comfort modeling tool in a realistic thermal environment of a vehicle passenger compartment. Human subject test data for thermal sensation and comfort was obtained in a climatic wind tunnel for a cross-over vehicle in a relatively warm thermal environment including solar load. A CFD/thermal model that simulates the vehicle operating conditions in the tunnel, is used to provide the necessary inputs required by the stand-alone thermal comfort tool. Comparison of the local and the overall thermal sensation and comfort levels between the human subject test and the tool's predictions shows a reasonably good agreement. The next step is to use this modeling technique in designing and developing energy-efficient HVAC systems without compromising thermal comfort of the vehicle occupants.

Advances in avionics and display technology are significantly changing the cockpit environment in current transport aircraft. The MIT Aeronautical Systems Lab (ASL) has developed a part-task flight simulator specifically to study the effects of these new technologies on flight crew situational awareness and performance. The simulator is based on a commercially-available graphics workstation, and can be rapidly reconfigured to meet the varying demands of experimental studies. The simulator has been successfully used to evaluate graphical microburst alerting displays, electronic instrument approach plates, terrain awareness and alerting displays, and ATC routing amendment delivery through digital datalinks.

EQUIPMENT for measuring vibration in airplane structures and powerplants during actual flight is described in this paper. This development is the result of a cooperative research program carried out by the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with contributions of improvements in design and new features by the Sperry Gyroscope Co., Inc. In its essentials, the M.I.T.-Sperry Apparatus consists of a number of electrical pickup units which operate a central amplifying and recording unit. The recorder is a double-element photographic oscillograph. Each pickup is adapted especially to the type of vibration that it is intended to measure and is made so small that it does not appreciably affect the vibration characteristics of the member to which it is attached rigidly. By using a number of systematically placed pickups, all the necessary vibration information on an airplane can be recorded during a few short flights.

This paper describes a three component strain gage balance designed to measure aerodynamic forces exerted on small automobile models when subjected to turbulence in an experimental wind tunnel. The instrument is described and the details of obtaining values with it are fully explained. Although tests were conducted on these models at quarter-scale Reynolds number, results agree closely with similar tests on larger models. The balance makes practical some unusual preliminary investigations before developing full-scale prototypes.

The recent publication in Europe of vehicle fuel consumption values on standardized test procedures has made it possible to compare the over-the-road energy efficiency of vehicles designed for North America with those designed for Europe. Thirty-six of the former were tested on the three ECE fuel consumption cycles. The results indicate equal or better performance for the American technology and made it possible to calculate “one-way” factors to predict a vehicle's performance on the ECE cycles from the U.S. EPA fuel consumption data for the UDDS and HWFET cycles.

Since the late 1980s, Delphi Automotive Systems has been very involved with the practical development of a variety of Collision Avoidance products for the near- and long-term automotive market. Many of these complex collision avoidance products will require the integration of various vehicular components/systems in order to provide a cohesive functioning product that is seamlessly integrated into the vehicle infrastructure. One such example of this system integration process was the development of an Adaptive Cruise Control system on an Opel Vectra. The design approach heavily incorporated system engineering processes/procedures. The critical issues and other technical challenges in developing these systems will be explored. Details on the hardware and algorithms developed for this vehicle, as well as the greater systems integration issues that arose during its development will also be presented.

The four major discriminators for products in the market place are Technology, Quality,1 Cost and Delivery. Effective measurement systems and initial design quality have the largest impact on delivered field quality, program development cost and timing, as well as customer enthusiasm. System-level reliability testing methods have a major impact on the business health of any product. The implementation of laboratory forced failure testing in simultaneously applied energy environments has the largest influence for "designing in" field reliability and lowering development cost. Clearly a policy change from success based testing to forced failure testing has had the largest impact on results for the consumer.

This paper first reports on the benchmarking of a gasoline- fueled vehicle currently for sale in California that is certified to ULEV standards. Emissions data from this vehicle indicate the improvements necessary over current technology to meet SULEV tailpipe standards. Tests with this vehicle also show emissions levels with current technology under off-cycle conditions representative of real-world use. We then present Delphi's strategy of on-board partial oxidation (POx) reforming with gasoline-fueled, spark-ignition engines. On-board reforming provides a source of hydrogen fuel. Tests were run with bottled gas simulating the output of a POx reformer. Results show that an advanced Engine Management System with a small on-board reformer can provide very low tailpipe emissions both under cold start and warmed-up conditions using relatively small amounts of POx gas. The data cover both normal US Federal Test Procedure (FTP) conditions as well as more extreme, off-cycle operation.