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Vehicle target setting is an evolving process based on continually changing internal (management, standards) and external (competitive and legal) requirements. In addition to evolving requirements, the process for establishing and documenting targets may not be clear. The objective of this paper is to detail the overall process of target setting, the critical factors to consider, and key definitions for each stage of the process. It will describe the complete process from early competitive benchmarking to final verification testing. Setting targets for a vehicle requires definition and thorough benchmarking of the competition, an understanding of the key attributes used to describe the vehicles' performance, and a clearly defined set of requirements. These requirements will be regulatory, corporate and competitively based and grouped by clearly defined, customer perceived attributes which can be cascaded to specific vehicle systems.

Incremental Sheet Forming (ISF) is an emerging sheet metal prototyping technology where a part is formed as one or more stylus tools are moving in a pre-determined path and deforming the sheet metal locally while the sheet blank is clamped along its periphery. A deformation analysis of incremental forming process is presented in this paper. The analysis includes the development of an analytical model for strain distributions based on part geometry and tool paths; and numerical simulations of the forming process with LS-DYNA. A skew cone is constructed and used as an example for the study. Analytical and numerical results are compared, and excellent correlations are found. It is demonstrated that the analytical model developed in this paper is reliable and efficient in the prediction of strain distributions for incremental forming process.

The efforts of the ISO “Test Variability Task Force” have been aimed at improving the understanding and at reducing brake dynamometer test variability during performance testing. In addition, dynamometer test results have been compared and correlated to vehicle testing. Even though there is already a vast amount of anecdotal evidence confirming the fact that different procedures generate different friction coefficients on the same brake corner, the availability of supporting data to the industry has been elusive up to this point. To overcome this issue, this paper focuses on assessing friction levels, friction coefficient sensitivity, and repeatability under ECE, GB, ISO, JASO, and SAE laboratory friction evaluation tests.

The Service Bay Diagnostic System (SBDS) will be designed to assist the dealership technician in diagnosing and repairing Ford Motor vehicles. The system hardware will be configured around a Service Bay Computer with mass storage capability and auxiliary service equipment. Major system features include: guided service writer/customer interaction, interactive vehicle diagnostics, information management. capabilities, and an additional aid to identifying intermittent failures through the use of a portable over-the-road data acquisition device. In order to assist the technician in properly diagnosing the causal factor, the Service Bay Computer System will also be enhanced through the use of an expert system knowledge base.

We report measurements of interior automotive cabin forced acoustical response (SPL) as a function of frequency from 1 Hz to 200 Hz. The acoustical response was measured at eight positions in the vehicle tested, approximating the positions of passengers and points in between passengers. Variances in experimental data arising from the manner in which measuring equipment is setup in a particular vehicle are reported, and variations in data taken in similarly equipped vehicles are also reported. The purpose of these tests is to determine the measurement variability of a typical vehicle acoustic test.

Rapid Prototyping, Fabrication and Tooling is a process that blends a series of technologies (machines, tools, and methods) capable of generating physical objects directly from a CAD database. The process dramatically reduces the time spent during product development by allowing for fast visualization, verification, iteration, optimization, and fabrication of parts and tools. Many new techniques of tooling have been and are being developed by using rapid fabricated parts. These are having a dramatic impact on both timing and costs throughout the automotive industry. One area that these methods can be utilized to their full potential is motorsports. Of particular interest is the growing use of bridge tooling to provide first article through production intent parts that promote cost effective changes.

There are a number of benefits from Ford Motor Company's participation in motorsports. This paper will describe how an engineering team developed a CAE process to assist in the design of a race car to meet impact requirements, with the technology transfer benefit of improved impact performance of composite structures in passenger cars. In 1997/98, a CAE process was developed and applied in the design and test of Formula One race car composite impact structures. For this particular engineering effort, a Ford proprietary software program, COMP-COLLAPSE, was the primary analysis tool that was utilized to successfully predict impact performance. As a result, COMP-COLLAPSE was used extensively in the design of race car composite impact structures. There were two beneficiaries from this effort: Race Vehicles: Improved vehicle impact performance as well as design improvement in crush efficiency, packaging, weight, and manufacturing.

Lookup tables and functions are widely used in real-time embedded automotive applications to conserve scarce processor resources. To minimize the resource utilization, these lookup tables (LUTs) commonly use custom data structures. The lookup function code is optimized to process these custom data structures. The legacy routines for these lookup functions are very efficient and have been in production for many years. These lookup functions and the corresponding data structures are typically used for calibration tables. The third-party calibration tools are specifically tailored to support these custom data structures. These tools assist the calibrators in optimizing the control algorithm performance for the targeted environment for production. Application software typically contains a mix of both automatically generated software and manually developed code. Some of the same calibration tables may be used in both auto generated and hand-code [ 1 ] [ 2 ].

This paper is the first in a series of documents designed to record the progress of the SAE J2293 Task Force as it continues to develop and refine the communication requirements between Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PEV) and the Electric Utility Grid. In February, 2008 the SAE Task Force was formed and it started by reviewing the existing SAE J2293 standard, which was originally developed by the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Controls Task Force in the 1990s. This legacy standard identified the communication requirements between the Electric Vehicle (EV) and the EV Supply Equipment (EVSE), including off-board charging systems necessary to transfer DC energy to the vehicle. It was apparent at the first Task Force meeting that the communications requirements between the PEV and utility grid being proposed by industry stakeholders were vastly different in the type of communications and messaging documented in the original standard.

The constant Q transform consists of a geometrically spaced filter bank, which is close to the wavelet transform due to the feature of its increasing time resolution for high frequencies. On the other hand, it can be processed using the well-known FFT algorithm. In this sense, this tool is a middle term between Fourier and wavelet analyses, which can be used for stationary and non-stationary signals. Automotive NVH signals can be stationary (e.g., idle, cruise) or non-stationary, i.e., time-varying signals (e.g., door closing/opening, run-up, rundown). The objective of this work is to propose the use of the constant Q transform, developed originally for musical signal processing, for automotive NVH (run up, impact strip and door closing) time-frequency analyses. Also, similarities and differences of the proposed tool when compared with Fourier and wavelet analyses are addressed.

This paper is the second in the series of documents designed to record the progress of a series of SAE documents - SAE J2836™, J2847, J2931, & J2953 - within the Plug-In Electric Vehicle (PEV) Communication Task Force. This follows the initial paper number 2010-01-0837, and continues with the test and modeling of the various PLC types for utility programs described in J2836/1™ & J2847/1. This also extends the communication to an off-board charger, described in J2836/2™ & J2847/2 and includes reverse energy flow described in J2836/3™ and J2847/3. The initial versions of J2836/1™ and J2847/1 were published early 2010. J2847/1 has now been re-opened to include updates from comments from the National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) Smart Grid Interoperability Panel (SGIP), Smart Grid Architectural Committee (SGAC) and Cyber Security Working Group committee (SCWG).

The development of embedded systems in automotive environment has brought a strong expansion in the number of applications dependent of programmable devices. A failure in any of these systems may cause different types of damages. Therefore, it requires a high confidence in their operation. Many of these faults are inserted during the coding process. A tool for formal verification of the implemented code could allow the detection of possible errors that could not be encountered during the testing phase. In this paper, we propose a method for verifying software from the reduced model of the software built automatically with information from multiple traces of program executions. To illustrate the application of the proposed method a case study for an automotive electronic module that controls the windshield wiper is presented.

Each supplier in the power tool industry offers unique tool features and packages. Competition and widespread individuality among manufacturers make it difficult to compare current air and new DC electric power tools. This experimental study compares air and electric hand-held tools based on laboratory testing and research of significant tool characteristics including heat buildup, tool impulse, cycle time and cost. Heat buildup in electric tools raised concerns as well as tool speed, although electric tools were in some instances only slightly slower than air tools. Electric tools, in general, do not have a lower torque-reaction impulse than air tools, but the correlation between tool-shutoff impulse and operator comfort remains unclear. Electric tools are more energy efficient than pneumatic tools, but their initial investment cost greatly outweighs the payback through reduced power usage.

A comparison between ‘Quasi-Transient’ and Steady-State (SAE J1349) engine dynamometer horsepower test procedures was conducted to determine the degree of correlation between the two test methods. Measurements demonstrated that the peak horsepower and torque measured using both techniques was similar. This information is useful as a development tool, because the ‘Quasi-Transient’ procedure allows for data to be collected over the engine RPM range much faster then the Steady-State method, allowing for the accurate testing of more engine/exhaust configurations in a shorter amount of time.

QFD, FMEA, Process Improvement, Taguchi, Simultaneous Engineering, PDP, Project Management, DVP, DOE, …and the list goes on. Today's automotive product design engineers face a myriad of “tools” (methodologies, techniques, procedures) that are expected to be mastered and used in the course of performing their job. The list continually grows with new tools being added to the existing ones. And each new tool has an associated acronym to add to the confusion. New and inexperienced engineers are often confused by these tools being tossed at them …school did not cover all this ! The experienced engineer is often skeptical. After all, “if I have been a successful engineer for 20 years, why do I need to start doing these things now?” Nevertheless, most of these tools are truly needed by engineers today in order to be competitive in the increasingly complex and sophisticated world of automotive product design.

Here we present an analytical model, written in general terms, which predicts the trajectory of a spherical particle/droplet placed in a uniform fluid stream. The model is compared to an experiment in which three millimeter diameter polypropolyene spheres (specific gravity = 0.91) are dropped in a uniform airstream (velocity varies from 0.9 to 3.8 m/s). Agreement between the two suggests the model incorporates all the important physics and thus should be useful as a design tool.

Frequency domain testing has had limited use in the past for durability evaluations of automotive components. Recent advances and new perspectives now make it a viable option. Using frequency domain testing for components, test times can be greatly reduced, resulting in considerable savings of time, money, and resources. Quality can be built into the component, thus making real-time subsystem and full vehicle testing and development more meaningful. Time domain testing historically started with block cycle histogram tests. Improved capabilities of computers, controllers, math procedures, and algorithms have led to real time simulation in the laboratory. Real time simulation is a time domain technique for duplicating real world environments using computer controlled multi-axial load inputs. It contains all phase information as in the recorded proving ground data. However, normal equipment limitations prevent the operation at higher frequencies.

Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) is a tool for estimating the response of complex dynamic systems at high modal density. This tool is seeing ever wider application in a range of industries, including aerospace industry, marine industry, and building trades. The automotive industry is beginning to explore the application of SEA to high frequency vehicle acoustic design. The SEA model of vibrational power transmission has a direct analogy to thermal power transmission (diffusion). As thermal power flow is proportional to temperature difference, vibrational power flow is proportional to modal energy difference. In this paper the thermal analogy is exploited to visualize the SEA results. This is accomplished by color coding a finite element representation of the structure. In this paper, the thermal analogy is used to correlate test data with SEA model results. This is accomplished by constructing a test based modal power thermogram.

Work has been performed to study side glass vibrations of a typical automobile using a scanning laser vibrometer. The objective of this work was to achieve better understanding of the source and path mechanisms for aeroacoustically generated wind noise. As a tool for measuring aeroacoustically generated vibrations, the laser vibrometer presents many advantages over traditional methods. These advantages, discussed in this paper, include rapid setup, full field imaging, high spacial resolution, non-contact operation, and wide dynamic and frequency ranges.